There’s nothing like a Mel Brooks musical to let actors loose their creative flair, according to the director of the comedic performance that will begin this weekend at the Holland Theatre.
Producer Max Bialystock, played by Derek Dunavent, marches proudly on the stage during an opening scene of Windmill Productions’ performance of the Mel Brooks’ musical The Producers. (EXAMINER PHOTO | REUBEN MEES)
“This is one of those shows that actors can be bold and over the top,” Steven Dietrich said of Windmill Productions’ rendition of The Producers. “Most times it’s a director’s job to rein the cast in if they go too far, but it’s very hard to go too far with a Mel Brooks musical.”
The Producers is based on Mel Brooks’ 1968 film of the same name, in which Broadway producer Max Bialystock (Derek Dunavent) and Leo Bloom (Brian Timpe), an accountant who aspires to produce a musical, hatch a get-rich-quick scheme to make money on a Broadway flop.
They find the perfect play to exploit in Franz Liebkind’s (Ian Fullerton) Springtime for Hitler and enlist the services of flamboyant gay director Roger DeBris (Nick Wallace) and his colorful team along with Swedish bombshell actress Ulla Inga Hansen Benson Yonsen Tallen-Hallen Svaden-Svanson (Amanda Stephens) to produce the would-be theatrical train wreck.
“I loved the film and it’s been a lot of fun doing the musical version,” said Dietrich, whose directoral debut was Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein. “It’s been quite a challenge because he (Brooks) likes to do everything big, bold and boisterous.”
Michael Suman is musical director; Suzanne Dennis is choreographer; and Linda MacGillivray is producer.
Show times are 7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 17; Thursday, June 22; Friday, June 23; and Saturday, June 24; with a 2 p.m. Sunday, June 18, matinee performance.
Tickets are $17 or $22 and are available at the theater’s 127 E. Columbus Ave. office from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. weekdays, online at www.thehollandtheatre.org for an additional fee or at the door, subject to availability.
More photos in Thursday’s Examiner.
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