“The Producers, A New Mel Brooks Musical” a rousing entertainment at LTM

MANCHESTER — “The Producers, a new Mel Brooks Musical” is a rousing, raucous, irreverent success and a fitting legacy to Fred T. Blish, one of the Little Theatre of Manchester’s founders, who passed away in October.
This show stars the ebullient and effusive Michael Forgetta as the lovable schemer Max Bialystock, a Broadway producer whose brighter days seem to be behind him.
This 2001 Broadway musical smash is based on the same named 1968 movie written by Brooks and starring Zero Mostel and Bialystock and Gene Wilder as the hapless accountant Leopold Bloom.
Bialystock says he used to get the biggest bathrooms at the Ritz, and his biggest coup was producing summer stock in the winter. After his latest effort setting “Hamlet” to music bombs, he’s down in the dumps.
“Do you know who I used to be?” he rhetorically laments.
However, hope springs eternal in this cantankerous conniver’s heart. And with the help of a neurotic loser, the accountant Leopold Bloom, played by the lithe and lanky Randy Ronco, they plan on finding the worst play ever written, with the worst cast ever chosen, along with the worst director they can find to open a sure-fire flop.
They decide to raise more money than the play is worth and take the $2 million to Rio de Janeiro after it closes on opening night.
The play they find is the audacious and remarkably inappropriate “Springtime for Hitler” written by Nazi-lover, pigeon-fancier, and resident lunatic Franz Liebchen, played by the solid and versatile Mike Zizka. Special notice goes to those fine pigeons that coo on cue with Franz.
The director is the outlandishly flamboyant Roger DeBris, played by John-Michael Whitney, who wears a Chrysler building dress like no other. I love the line when he says how educational the play is, observing, “I never knew that the Third Reich meant Germany.”
On opening night Franz breaks a leg, literally, and DeBris agrees to take the role of Hitler. It doesn’t get much more irreverent than “Heil Myself,” sung by DeBris and others.
Max and Leo hire a Swedish bombshell secretary/receptionist amusingly named Ulla Inga Hansen Benson Yonsen Tallen-Hallen Svaden-Svanson played by the effervescent and energetic Sarah Jane Hayes.
The choreography, by the excellent Sheila Waters Fucci, is complex and well executed, including some dynamic tap dancing by the exemplary ensemble cast. Particularly outstanding is the tap dance with walkers that is timed to perfection.
Waters Fucci also does a funny turn as a little old lady nicknamed “Hold Me-Touch Me.” She does a cameo behind the sofa with Ulla and Bloom that is not to be missed.
Ronco is a svelte dancer, and his acting with hair during the song “Where Did We Go Right?” is the best I’ve seen since Jack Nicholson in the film “Something’s Gotta Give.”
The second act loses some steam near the end, and the “Prisoners of Love” number as well as the song “Leo and Max” could have been rehearsed more.
The costumes by Lisa Steier are creative and fun, including an outlandish sausage link outfit.
The set design by Blish and company is flexible and functional, with many set changes. A special shout out to the whole cast and crew for making those frequent changes in lightening fast time, with strong stage management by Heidi Bengraff and commanding direction by Jane Cerosky.
This musical has more double-entendres and sexual innuendoes and situations than you can shake a walker at, along with some very adult language, making this show wholly inappropriate for children, but a heck of a lot of fun for the grownups.
What a super, irreverent entertainment for the last show of the year at Little Theatre of Manchester, now in their 50th year — a class act all the way.

THE PRODUCERS

3½ Stars
Location: Cheney Hall, 177 Hartford Road, Manchester
Production: Music and lyrics by Mel Brooks, with book by Brooks and Thomas Meehan. Directed by Jane Cerosky. Musical direction by Angela Klimaytis. Choreography by Sheila Waters Fucci. Stage manager Heidi Bengraff. Sound design by Fred T. Blish and shop crew. Lighting design by Glen Aliczi. Costumes by Lisa Steier.
Running time: 3 hours, plus one 15-minute intermission
Show Times: Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Sundays at 2 p.m., and through Nov. 21.
Tickets: $21 — $28. Call the box office at 860-647-9824, or visit their website at www.cheneyhall.org
Actor …. Character
Michael Forgetta … Max Bialystock
Randy Ronco … Leo Bloom
Mike Zizka … Fanz Liebchen
John-Michael Whitney … Roger DeBris
Todd Santa Maria … Carmen Ghia
Sarah Jane Hayes … Ulla
Leslie Bacon, Brian Courtemache, Nicholas G. D’Agostino, Frank J. Dorio, Lisa Garofalo, Al Girard, Amy Grimm, Marguerite Kelly, Marge Kelly, Mike May, Michael Metsack, Christine Noble, Tom Nunes, Melissa Paul, Kristen Shaw … Ensemble