The Producers

Went to see this last night. The only other theatrical play I've seen in the last 25 years was 'Titanic" surprise!)so I thought I would go see something different. I have the laser disk of the original 1968 movie and I like it a lot, so I thought I would go see what the new version was like.

I have a closet full of sport coats and suits, none of which I've worn since my last job. Didn't touch them when I was unemployed and I now work in a uniform. I can be promoted twice and still not need civilian clothing, so they have nto been touched in years. And the only time I will touch them again is to take them all to goodwill as nothing fits. I am going to be realistic, they will not fit again, so why keep them. I won't be that size again until I start losing weight from being REALLY old and males in my family all tend to be dead by then. But I digress.

In any event I wore a shirt and tie from work and the plastic shoes I had left over from the army, and a coat I could not button closed .

I thought I had tickets for the third row from the front. When the tickets arrived I was in row "YY", which was second from the BACK. Ticketmaster was deliberately unclear in that particular matter, and I had never been to the Pantages theater before so I didn't know that you could be in an "Orchestra" seat and be 40 rows back from it. But too late to do anything about it then. I was so far back I was tempted to go back in the lobby and rent the binoculars, but it would have required getting a bunch of people to move to go out to get them, so I went without.

The Broadway production had Nathan Lane and Mathew Broderick. The LA version had Jason Alexander and Martin Short. I can't imagine how the Broadway production could have been better. These two worked it VERY well.

Theater was packed. Found out why, this turned out to be opening night. There was a table with several people handing out press passes. Theater was FULL.

Other easy way to tell it was opening night - Mel Brooks actually appeared on stage. He played one of the dancing nazi's in the original movie. Now 75 years old, he just stepped out on stage, sang a couple of lines and stepped off. That's about as much as you could expect, considering he went to the same college that I did.

Virginia Military Institute.
Melvin Brooks, Class of 49.
Dwight J. Dutton, Class of 80.

For a change, I actually enjoyed something more than I thought I would. Haven't gotten that from movies for awhile. But then, tickets for this cost 13 times as much as a movie ticket, so I expected 13 times as much. I actually got it.

They completely wrote out Dick Shawn's character, but they easily worked around it. I suppose they could not find anyone who could play that part.

Lots of the performance was stuff that could not either be put on film or on television. Most of the dancing on stage was HEAVILY hebrew oriented. But I expected that also.

Overall, I would give it four stars. If you can afford to go see this, do it. Take a gay friend if you have one.

The Producers

Went to see this last night. The only other theatrical play I've seen in the last 25 years was 'Titanic" surprise!)so I thought I would go see something different. I have the laser disk of the original 1968 movie and I like it a lot, so I thought I would go see what the new version was like.

I have a closet full of sport coats and suits, none of which I've worn since my last job. Didn't touch them when I was unemployed and I now work in a uniform. I can be promoted twice and still not need civilian clothing, so they have nto been touched in years. And the only time I will touch them again is to take them all to goodwill as nothing fits. I am going to be realistic, they will not fit again, so why keep them. I won't be that size again until I start losing weight from being REALLY old and males in my family all tend to be dead by then. But I digress.

In any event I wore a shirt and tie from work and the plastic shoes I had left over from the army, and a coat I could not button closed .

I thought I had tickets for the third row from the front. When the tickets arrived I was in row "YY", which was second from the BACK. Ticketmaster was deliberately unclear in that particular matter, and I had never been to the Pantages theater before so I didn't know that you could be in an "Orchestra" seat and be 40 rows back from it. But too late to do anything about it then. I was so far back I was tempted to go back in the lobby and rent the binoculars, but it would have required getting a bunch of people to move to go out to get them, so I went without.

The Broadway production had Nathan Lane and Mathew Broderick. The LA version had Jason Alexander and Martin Short. I can't imagine how the Broadway production could have been better. These two worked it VERY well.

Theater was packed. Found out why, this turned out to be opening night. There was a table with several people handing out press passes. Theater was FULL.

Other easy way to tell it was opening night - Mel Brooks actually appeared on stage. He played one of the dancing nazi's in the original movie. Now 75 years old, he just stepped out on stage, sang a couple of lines and stepped off. That's about as much as you could expect, considering he went to the same college that I did.

Virginia Military Institute.
Melvin Brooks, Class of 49.
Dwight J. Dutton, Class of 80.

For a change, I actually enjoyed something more than I thought I would. Haven't gotten that from movies for awhile. But then, tickets for this cost 13 times as much as a movie ticket, so I expected 13 times as much. I actually got it.

They completely wrote out Dick Shawn's character, but they easily worked around it. I suppose they could not find anyone who could play that part.

Lots of the performance was stuff that could not either be put on film or on television. Most of the dancing on stage was HEAVILY hebrew oriented. But I expected that also.

Overall, I would give it four stars. If you can afford to go see this, do it. Take a gay friend if you have one.