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revdorothyl at 06:18pm on 31/12/2005 under movie reviews
revdorothyl at 06:18pm on 31/12/2005 under movie reviewsI got back from Wisconsin last night, with car and self both intact -- only hit a rainstorm with impressive lightning for a short stretch in southern Kentucky, having left well ahead of the snow moving down on Milwaukee yesterday afternoon. So, I celebrated New Year's Eve this afternoon by going to an early matinee of "The Producers" -- a movie none of my family had wanted to see with me.
I have to admit, I was somewhat ambivalent about going to see this film, myself, since I'd never seen more than Tony-award excerpts of the Broadway musical, but I'm very familiar with and fond of the original movie from the 1960's, which became the basis for the musical about producing a musical on Broadway. I couldn't imagine anyone equaling the original comic alchemy of Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder. And, particularly in the early scene where Leo Bloom first meets Max Bialystock, my fears at first seem justified, as Nathan Lane went through the familiar words and motions and facial expressions of Zero Mostel's characterization and Matthew Broderick seemed to be doing a road-company Gene Wilder, with indifferent results (although the rest of the audience seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the schtick that struck me as too recycled).
However, the musical version very soon began to diverge markedly from the original movie version, and from that point on I was delighted by the whole experience. From the time that Leo Bloom said "no thanks" at the fountain, Broderick began to make the character his own, with delightful new songs and production numbers and many actual surprises for me. I was particularly pleased with the development of Ula's character from "toy" in the first movie to an actual character in this one. And Will Ferrell actually started to seem almost lovable, as Franz Liebkin's character played a larger and more musical role than in the original. Plus, the character of Roger deBris and his significant other and entourage! -- priceless musical number, reinterpreting the original brief comedy skit of the director in an evening gown and his relationship with his Puckish "house boy". I'd actually been dreading to see who they'd get to play Dick Shawn's inimitable character, L.S.D., so it was a relief that HIS song was nowhere to be seen, and the characters of Franz and Roger were instead expanded to fill the void. The production numbers alone were worth the price of admission, and there was far more to love about this movie/show than that.
Fortunately, I had nowhere to run off to, so I stayed through the whole credits, chortling uncontrollably as I enjoyed Will Ferrell's satiric "tribute" to a certain well-known Broadway composer and Minnie Driver's rendition of a similar-sounding ballad (with very different lyrics!) over the credits of another movie musical released LAST Christmas. If you go, you gotta stay all the way through the production number that follows the end of the closing credits -- it's not really over until Mel Brooks himself appears on screen and tells you to go home.
I have to admit, I was somewhat ambivalent about going to see this film, myself, since I'd never seen more than Tony-award excerpts of the Broadway musical, but I'm very familiar with and fond of the original movie from the 1960's, which became the basis for the musical about producing a musical on Broadway. I couldn't imagine anyone equaling the original comic alchemy of Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder. And, particularly in the early scene where Leo Bloom first meets Max Bialystock, my fears at first seem justified, as Nathan Lane went through the familiar words and motions and facial expressions of Zero Mostel's characterization and Matthew Broderick seemed to be doing a road-company Gene Wilder, with indifferent results (although the rest of the audience seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the schtick that struck me as too recycled).
However, the musical version very soon began to diverge markedly from the original movie version, and from that point on I was delighted by the whole experience. From the time that Leo Bloom said "no thanks" at the fountain, Broderick began to make the character his own, with delightful new songs and production numbers and many actual surprises for me. I was particularly pleased with the development of Ula's character from "toy" in the first movie to an actual character in this one. And Will Ferrell actually started to seem almost lovable, as Franz Liebkin's character played a larger and more musical role than in the original. Plus, the character of Roger deBris and his significant other and entourage! -- priceless musical number, reinterpreting the original brief comedy skit of the director in an evening gown and his relationship with his Puckish "house boy". I'd actually been dreading to see who they'd get to play Dick Shawn's inimitable character, L.S.D., so it was a relief that HIS song was nowhere to be seen, and the characters of Franz and Roger were instead expanded to fill the void. The production numbers alone were worth the price of admission, and there was far more to love about this movie/show than that.
Fortunately, I had nowhere to run off to, so I stayed through the whole credits, chortling uncontrollably as I enjoyed Will Ferrell's satiric "tribute" to a certain well-known Broadway composer and Minnie Driver's rendition of a similar-sounding ballad (with very different lyrics!) over the credits of another movie musical released LAST Christmas. If you go, you gotta stay all the way through the production number that follows the end of the closing credits -- it's not really over until Mel Brooks himself appears on screen and tells you to go home.
(no subject)