The Producers Reviews Round-up [Updated] – Garrick Theatre London

"A five-star show for turbulent times" (Garrick Theatre, London)

"Patrick Marber’s masterful revival is even more deluxe and delightful in this West End transfer"

"... there’s scarcely a moment in The Producers unmolested by mickey-taking. And yet as Patrick Marber’s masterful revival at the Garrick Theatre in London reminds us, in a more deluxe and even more delightful version of a production that opened at the Menier Chocolate Factory, you don’t stay fun for two hours plus just by being silly."

"Joanna Woodward ensures the Swedish sexpot Ulla is not just an object of desire, but someone who desires a better life. She sings with incredible power. And it’s hard to imagine a funnier, cannier turn than Trevor Ashley as the camp theatre director Roger DeBris. He owns utterly Roger’s every outlandishly outré gesture."

"This fusillade of laser-focused facetiousness feels like the perfect piffle for our turbulent times."

"Yet this feels like the show we need right now: a comedy that holds nothing sacred except the right to hold nothing sacred. Marber, the choreographer Lorin Latarro and the costume designer Paul Farnsworth blend spectacle, discipline and daftness."

"At 99, Mel Brooks has the funniest show in London" (Garrick Theatre, London)

"Transferred to the Garrick, Mel Brooks’ classic comedy is not simply hilarious but is exactly what we all need right now"

"I watched an audience belly-laugh at its swastika-strewn antics on Saturday, while far-right flag-shaggers milled around the West End outside. In a time of polarisation and performative outrage, this show is a hymn to tolerance and the ability to laugh with others and at oneself."

"Patrick Marber’s revival... has grown in swagger and finesse since it premiered at the Menier last December. Now, I honestly can’t find fault with it. Its linchpin is Andy Nyman’s Max Bialystok, a once-great producer whose latest opus – Funny Boy, a musical based on Hamlet – bombs during the opening number."

"Pocket rocket Woodward is very funny in a role that’s pure, heavily-accented, cartoonish sexuality, and she’s matched by a sprawlingly comic Harry Morrison... Trevor Ashley is also sublime, a camp galleon under full sale when in drag."

"Lorin Latarro’s choreography has more room to breathe at the Garrick, and it’s a riot of goose-stepping chorus girls and boys in sequined hot pants, jackboots and helmets."

"The line Bialystok quotes from a review of Springtime for Hitler also sums up The Producers: “It was shocking, outrageous and insulting – and I loved every minute of it.”"

"Don't see The Producers if you're easily offended, the rest of us are having a blast" (Garrick Theatre, London)

"Mel Brooks' fabulously outrageous satire The Producers hits harder than ever at The Garrick. Don't miss, as long as you have a brain and a sense of humour."

"Given more room to breathe (and a bigger budget) at The Garrick, Patrick Marber's original lean and sparky production spreads its pidgeon wings and soars. We roared with delight throughout at the big numbers and broad gags, and the smaller, but no less joyous or clever, delights."

"Memories of Zero Mostel and then Nathan Lane loom large, but an extraordinary Andy Nyman makes shady shyster Max Bialystock utterly his own."

"The production wonderfully retains its scrappy low-fi Menier origins. It expands sets and costumes just enough to fit the West End but keeps its focus tightly on the material and the performances, all of which, without exception, shine."

"They’ve got it… and they’re flaunting it!" (Garrick Theatre, London)

"... the genius of Mel Brooks’ comedy musical lies as much in its skewering of the ludicrousness of fascist ideology as its satire of showbiz."

"Patrick Marber’s production, a hit for the Menier Chocolate Factory last Christmas, mines all the laughs in Brooks and Thomas Meehan’s Tony-winning book and adds plenty of its own, notably in the ensemble numbers."

"It’s anchored by a pair of outstanding performances from Andy Nyman and Marc Antolin"

"... it’s a real ensemble effort, with hilarious cameos aplenty"

"The Producers has come back to the West End just at the right time, offering a giant slab of feel-good escapism and genuine hilarity when such things feel in short supply."

(Menier Chocolate Factory, London)

"Brooks' script, lyrics and music seem funnier than ever and even Lorin Latarro's choreography is hilarious."

"Most impressive of all is the way it highlights the various love stories embedded within the anarchy - from Leo & Ulla's love ditty That Face to Max and leo's courtroom reconciliation 'Til Him. A compassionate satire? See it and weep, mostly with laughter."

"Mel Brooks’s outrageous musical The Producers is still gloriously funny" (Garrick Theatre, London)

"This zesty revival raises the Garrick roof with a carnival of wisecracks and witty tunes"

"Now it’s back, courtesy of Patrick Marber’s zesty revival, transferring from the Menier. It’s still a winningly funny proposition for a new generation – and Marber pulls out all the stops to raise the Garrick roof."

"Andy Nyman’s raffish Max Bialystock is joined again by Marc Antolin as his nerdy accountant Leo Bloom. Blessed with sharp timing and twinkling charm, the pair work their socks off."

"Any production stands or falls by the second half’s Springtime segment and an overload of kitsch awaits, with Ashley’s Adolf arriving in a gilded chariot pulled by a minion"

"Does the Hitlerian concept shock as once it did? Not really. Has the show been sanitised? Mercifully not."

"Andy Nyman and Marc Antolin are a match made in comedy heaven" (Garrick Theatre, London)

"Inventive Broadway revival transferred from the Menier doubles down on the comedy and ramps up the pace"

"... [Patrick Marber] saturates this slick musical comedy with a wealth of physical gags, exquisitely timed double takes and an expertly judged sense of the absurd that enhances the show’s momentum. This is amplified by Lorin Latarro’s adventurous choreography"

"Its success relies in no small part on the hugely entertaining double act at its heart."

"There isn’t a moment where the pace drops in Marber’s production, and there’s even time for a love story"

"With its winning performances, reimagined settings and vibrant choreography, there’s no reason this revival shouldn’t join the wealth of British shows currently enjoying success across the pond."

"Patrick Marber’s grimy revival of the Mel Brooks musical classic is a little creaky but still hilarious, with a radiant contempt for fascism" (Menier Chocolate Factory, London)

"Patrick Marber has never directed a musical before, but his diverse career has prepped him well for this production... His is a much tougher, grimier take on The Producers than the polished original production – the shabbiness of mid-twentieth century New York is virtually an extra character, and in a career-best tun, Andy Nyman’s unscrupulous protagonist Max Bialystock looks positively Dickensian in his stained waistcoat, grubby jacket and lank hair."

"t remains a very funny premise. The biggest problem with reviving The Producers – other than the sense it simply already had its day – is that social attitudes have moved on a long way since 1967... I’d say Marber steers past them all quite deftly with his grimy, funny and well-judged production."

"Not wishing to be melodramatic about it, but fascism is a lot more visible these days and sincere pro-Hitler accounts are alarmingly easy to come across on Twitter and the like. And actually, I think that gives Marber’s take on The Producers some edge"

"The Producers is a bit dated, a bit slow in getting going, and is bereft of the exciting hype that fizzed and crackled through it last time. But its pillorying of fascist iconography remains hysterically funny and steely sharp – perhaps sharper than it was before."

"The Mel Brooks classic is delivered with taste-trampling gusto" (Menier Chocolate Factory, London)

"The celebrated musical’s first London revival since the West End premiere run of 2004-2007 is a consummate guilty pleasure"

"Patrick Marber’s fun, slick-ish production pulls out all the stops for that still jaw-dropping scene, albeit on a fringier budget."

"It’s a consummate guilty pleasure: we’re laughing at the Nazis at the risk of traducing the darkest chapter of 20th century history. That outré centre-piece alone is worth the price of admission, along with the ludicrous sight of Bialystock’s old-lady investors hoofing it up on Zimmer-frames (choreography by Lorin Latarro)."

"I’m hoping that as the run continues, Andy Nyman and Marc Antolin as Bialystock and Bloom become big selling-points in their own right."

"Harry Morrison brings lung-busting heft and mad-eyed aplomb to the lunatic Nazi playwright (complete with synchronised, swastika-sporting pigeons). Joanna Woodward is terrific as the unfazeable Swedish hopeful, Ulla, snapped up for her sex-appeal. And Jermaine Woods almost steals the show with one short hilarious burst of flouncing as De Bris’s choreographer. As camp as Christmas, then, and perfectly suited to the festive need for cheer."

"Daring delight is the sparkling standout of London’s festive theatre" (Menier Chocolate Factory, London)

"Director Patrick Marber and a multitasking ensemble put on an irresistible revival of Mel Brooks’ musical satire"

"Still so original, and delightfully – daringly – funny, it is revived by director Patrick Marber with such vigour, sparkle and controlled wildness that it renders itself the London show of the festival season – funnier, camper and more outre than pantomime, although it pulls back from the full freight of the danger in its political satire."

"Nyman is the perfect mix of the clown and the raddled sleaze while Antolin, as his nervy ex-accountant sidekick, is winningly jangly, and his romance with actor-cum-secretary Ulla (Chloe Saunders, stupendous voice) is pulled off cutely."

"Trevor Ashley plays Roger de Bris, the ultra camp director of the Broadway show who becomes a last-minute fill-in for the part of the Führer. When he appears, complete with gold dress and chariot, the comedy reaches its hysterical pitch."

"... the satire as a whole is a little too leavened by larking and warmth. In the backdrop are a few roving Jews, and the occasional sound of gunshots, symbolic but slightly lost in the fun when this could have brought a drop in temperature, if the drama were less hysterical. Yet still it is irresistible, absurd and joyful, both celebrating and sending up the power of theatre. A blast of a show."

"Mel Brooks’s outrageous musical slims down nicely" (Menier Chocolate Factory, London)

"Even in the tiny Menier Chocolate Factory in London, this revival is so full of mischief that you’re swept along by the sheer ridiculousness of it all"

"Can a show as big and blowsy as Mel Brooks’s outrageous musical about a Broadway scam work in such an intimate setting? I had my doubts at first, but Patrick Marber’s revival is so full of mischief that you’re simply swept along by the sheer ridiculousness of it all. Staging Springtime for Hitler here is the equivalent of putting the Nuremberg Rally in a scout hut, yet it works, thanks partly to Lorin Latarro’s knowingly tacky choreography."

"When Nyman darts about his shabby office, you can almost see waves of dandruff and halitosis radiating from him."

"As Leo Bloom, the neurotic accountant-turned-impresario, the rubber-limbed Marc Antolin spins around the floor like a broken Catherine wheel during a fit of hysterics. And there are satisfyingly OTT performances from Trevor Ashley as ultra-camp director Roger De Bris and Harry Morrison as demented Nazi composer and pigeon-fancier Franz Liebkind, who has his chorus line in the form of a row of swastika-wearing bird puppets."

"This director is definitely on a roll."

"A superb revival of this buoyantly vulgar Broadway musical" (Menier Chocolate Factory, London)

"Come for the great gags and music, stay for the hotpants and giant spangled Bratwurst"

"The buoyantly vulgar Broadway musical Mel Brooks shaped from his 1967 film – Thomas Meehan helped on the book, but the songs are all vintage Brooks – is superbly retooled for the Menier’s stage by director Patrick Marber. There’s a gloriously shabby performance from Andy Nyman as the dodgy producer Bialystok and a sweet-voiced one from Marc Antolin in the trickier role of Bloom, the man-child accountant who works out they can make more from a theatrical flop than a hit."

"Lorin Latarro’s tight choreography and Scott Pask’s inventively minimal set together deserve awards for the fact that no one suffers a high-kicking jackboot in the keister."

"If anything disproves the oft-heard claim that “you can’t say anything nowadays”, it’s this show."

"Anyway, Marber’s fluent production has gorgeous, overblown supporting performances from Joanna Woodward as bosomy Swedish secretary/showgirl Ulla, Trevor Ashley as a twitchy De Bris and Harry Morrison as the Luger-toting playwright Franz Liebkind, fiercely defending his idol (“the Fuhrer was BUTCH!”)."

"A gleeful, dialled-up-to-the-max musical" (Menier Chocolate Factory, London)

"Patrick Marber’s take on Mel Brooks’s bad-taste comedy lights up London’s Menier Chocolate Factory"

"At London’s Menier Chocolate Factory, director Patrick Marber, choreographer Lorin Latarro and the versatile cast go at it with unadulterated glee, plundering every cliché in the book and mischievously pickpocketing the musicals tradition."

"Some of the humour now lands as blunt more than outrageous — Leo’s shock at seeing Roger De Bris in a gown, for instance, feels very dated. And there is a sense, in the first half in particular, of selling some gags too hard: every moment is dialled up to the max. But the show relaxes more as it proceeds and what makes it is the genial cast."

"At its heart are Nyman and Antolin, both terrific and a wonderful double act."

"Despite all the absurdity, at its heart, it’s rather sweet: a ridiculous love-letter to friendship and to the sheer craziness and passion of show business."

"The Producers returns to the London stage – and it’s as sharp and taboo-busting as ever" (Menier Chocolate Factory, London)

"Patrick Marber directs a crowd-pleasing new revival of Mel Brooks’s timeless musical at the Menier Chocolate Factory"

"The Führeris back, and he’s absolutely bringing the house down."

"What’s impressive about The Producers is just how sharp its teeth still are, nearly 60 years on. The sight of swastikas being gaily twirled around the stage still has the hard kick of taboo: as a satire both of fascist nationalism and showbiz, The Producers remains ever-relevant. Directed by Patrick Marber (Closer, Leopoldstadt), this production does a lot with a small, intimate stage; Lorin Latarro’s choreography is showy and dynamic – but lets the comedy rightfully hoard the focus."

"I’m not sure anything new is achieved with this production, but then, that’s always been the case with The Producers onstage. It never needed to exist – but that doesn’t make it any less delightful. The jokes are rapid, the satire outrageous. How could it possibly fail?"

"Where did they go right?" (Menier Chocolate Factory, London)

"As you watch the silver-clad stormtroopers kicking their legs high, and extending their arms, while belting out “Springtime for Hitler”, it’s hard not to ask yourself: would Mel Brooks’ The Producers ever get commissioned today?"

"It hasn’t been seen in London for 20 years, and with the broadness of its caricatures and the lowness of its humour, it’s easy to see why. Yet director Patrick Marber’s new production for the Menier adds enough energy and verve to sweep away the doubts. Faced with a crazed Nazi, a camp director, a Swedish secretary, sex-obsessed old ladies, and two Jewish producers desperate enough to put on Swastika armbands, he simply turns the volume up as high as it will go and sits back to let the fun explode."

"He’s much helped by Andy Nyman who, despite clearly labouring with a heavy cold on press night, turns Bialystock into a figure of restless irony... Nyman eats up the stage, singing powerfully, eyes constantly flashing towards the next main chance, his comic timing – he clasps his heart every time someone mentions money – obvious but also impeccable. As the hapless Bloom, a man never far from a panic attack which sets him sliding across the floor like a human broom, Marc Antolin exudes delicate charm and an attractive fragility."

"You won’t want it to end" (Menier Chocolate Factory, London)

"Wickedly funny Mel Brooks musical is given a long overdue London revival filled with first-class performances"

"Everything that Mel Brooks’ cheeky musical offered up when it first opened in the West End 20 years ago remains intact in Patrick Marber’s loving revival. It’s a more than welcome return for a show that is as funny as it is charming."

"Nyman and Antolin work delightfully together, Nyman a ball of frustrated energy, Antolin on top form as his nervy, blanket-hugging sidekick. They sing and dance wonderfully, and they’re very funny, too – both the physical and verbal comedy is a genuine treat."

"The highlight, however, comes in the form of Trevor Ashley’s Roger De Bris... Ashley’s expressions, voice and comic timing are spot on. His Judy Garland-infused Hitler is a wonder. And when he’s surrounded by the rest of the cast, with pretzels and frankfurters on top of their heads, you don’t want it to end."

"A high-kicking, sieg-heiling treat" (Menier Chocolate Factory, London)

"We could all do with a laugh right now, and this revival has them by the barrel-load"

"Heaven knows how Babani makes it add up, but his shows never look cheap. That’s certainly the case for Marber’s zestful revival of The Producers, Mel Brooks’s musical version of his own beautifully-in-bad-taste film of 1967."

"The time is demonstrably right for a comedy whose only real purpose is to put a spring in its audience’s step. We could do with a laugh right now."

"Heavens, though, this is a fun evening."

"Springtime for Hitler itself is an utter joy here. Some of the greatest pleasures are in the supporting turns. Trevor Ashley, as the camp director Roger De Bris, has a face so playfully animated it could power a Pixar season. Joanna Woodward judges perfectly the self-possession and self-knowledge of the Swedish sexpot Ulla, and boy does she belt out her tunes."

"Nobody would argue that many of the songs are melodic masterpieces, but they do the job, move the story forward and keep the gags coming at a prolific rate. There are a lot of laughs. Resistance is futile."

"Yes, The Producers is sexist - but it still won me over" (Menier Chocolate Factory, London)

"The musical gleefully sets out to offend just about everybody, but this joyful revival is full of comedy gems"

"... I cannot deny it – I left the theatre cheerfully humming the production’s earworm of a centrepiece showstopper, the crazily jaunty “Springtime for Hitler”. I must keep reminding myself that, outside of theatrical contexts, this could be egregiously misconstrued."

"The production certainly outstays its welcome, especially during an 80-minute first half which director Patrick Marber fails to prevent from flagging at points. Nevertheless, when it comes to rehearsals for the show from hell, the sheer ridiculous over-the-top-ness is an ebullient joy that wins over even the hardest (feminist) hearts."

"The Menier made its name with small-scale productions of big musicals and, mein Gott, it is pleasing to see it return to what it does best."