Before the underwhelming 2005 movie starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, there was the 1968 cult film and subsequent 2001 Tony Award-winning Broadway hit by the legendary Mel Brooks. Staged for the first time in Southeast Asia, ‘The Producers’ may have gone through a few facelifts over the years since the world was first introduced to Max Bialystock and Leopold Bloom, but the soul of the piece has largely remained unchanged.
This glitzy spoof of traditional Broadway musicals sees down-on-his luck producer Max and his accountant Leopold joining forces to produce the worst flop in theatre history, in order to flee with the money they raised from investors after the play closes on opening night. Fans of meta-comedies will thoroughly enjoy this musical within a musical, especially its slapstick humour and irreverent tunes like ‘Springtime for Hitler’. This Nell Ng-directed Pan Productions effort stars Peter Ong, Vince Chong, Safia Hanifah, Alfred Loh and Alizakri Alias. Wong Boon Ken