It's Dinner Theatre night tonight and we're looking forward to seeing The Producers. Mel Brooks is Stan's favorite comic mind (2000 Year Old Man, Blazing Saddles, etc.) and the funniest actor on the Chanhassen stage, we think, is Jay Albright. We're looking forward to this comedic pairing tonight and we'll let you know if we think it succeeds.
Brooks took a real gamble when he adapted his 1968 film satire to the musical stage. The story was utterly outrageous: flop covered theatrical producer Max Bialystock realizes the road to his financial redemption lies in producing the worst musical ever written, raising $25,000 of the capital, and pocketing it all when the show is a one-night-only disaster. Aided and abetted by a timid accountant, Leo Bloom, Bialystock options the rights to a "gay romp with Adolf and Eva in Berchtesgarten" called "Springtime for Hitler." Of course, if the show, by some insane stretch of credulity, were to become a hit, Bialystock and Bloom would be thrown in jail. And that’s exactly what happens!
