It’s based on Brooks’ 1968 film starring Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, transformed into the Broadway play starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick.
The show has a great script, great songs and a big heart.
The BSPA Summer Youth Project features 32 talented young performers aged 16-24 years from across Northern Ireland and the show runs from 25th -27th August 2022 in the Mac Theatre, Belfast. Directed by Peter Corry, along with Ashley Fulton as Musical Director and Adam Ashford as Choreographer.
The story concerns Max Bialystock, a failing Broadway producer and his and mousy accountant Leo Bloom. Between them they have come up with a scam that will make them millionaires by producing the worst ever musical on Broadway. They finally come across a script by the crazy’ex’-nazi storm trooper Franz Liebkind (Keris Dodds), which tells of the rise of Adolf Hitler in song and dance. – The most offensive musical imagined, or at least one would think?
The show features the two talents of Shane Ferris and Michael Nevin as said Max and Leo – Together they make a remarkable team.
Shane Ferris pitches Max perfectly, making him a little bit of a sleazeball but likeable. He bounds around the stage with grace yet still portrays the character’s stocky frame and still has the energy to make his biggest number, Betrayed – in which in part 2 he sums up in song everything we’ve seen so far – something very special. Shane has a tremendous knack for the character, comedy, and vocal work. And he does have to do a lot of work to raise the money for their bust – mostly “charming” little old ladies out of their money.
Michael Nevin makes the perfect partner, his Leo being a bag of nerves that adds up to something very sweet. Watching the ‘very very very very very unhappy’ numbers man change from hunched, shambling mess to a confident producer is a delight.
The talented Grace Conroy plays Ulla, the over-the-top Swedish blond bombshell who applies for work with Max and Leo. And, of course, she gets hired, perhaps helped by her Ven You Got It, Flaunt It interview song-and-dance that leaves Max and Leo a couple of drooling, quivering, helpless masses.
Of course, it helps to have the worst director on Broadway taking over the show, so they convince the ultra-camp Roger De Bris to keep the story of Hitler light and…well…as gay as something called The Third Reich can be. Jackson Allen plays it perfectly and gaily and with a flair for the dramatic as he sees Springtime for Hitler taking him to his destiny, and as he becomes the gayest Hitler ever.
Noah Glenn is a riot as Roger’s even gayer, and highly jealous, assistant Carmen Ghia who has an impressive flair for dance and the dramatic, always grasping at the spotlight, sometimes caressing the curtain on his way out.
You really need a sense of humour for this show. It really is a bizarre spectacle – ‘Springtime for Hitler’, ‘Keep it Gay’ and ‘Haben Sie Gehört das Deutsche Band’?
This is a show packed with hilarious one-liners, singing, dancing and brilliant sets and costumes. It does need polished towards the end of the show, which I’m sure will be ironed out after opening night. The show guarantees a feel good fun time and thoroughly deserved its standing ovation from the audience.
“The witty wordplay, showbiz in-jokes and shamelessly crass humour are laugh-out-loud funny with comic performances creating a slick, snappy production”
THE PRODUCERS by Belfast School Of Performing Arts
– showcasing the tremendous future talent we have in Northern Ireland.”
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