ON STAGE
COURTESY OF DIAMOND HEAD THEATRE
Broadway musicals are a funny business in "The Producers."
|
|
DHT stages Mel Brooks comedy
Adolf Hitler's undeniable place as contemporary pop culture's equivalent of the Antichrist has rarely been more important to the premise of a writer's work than it is in "The Producers."
'The Producers'
Place: Diamond Head Theatre, 520 Makapuu Ave.
Time: Opens 8 p.m. Friday; continues 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, and 4 p.m. Sundays, through June 1. Saturday matinees at 3 p.m.
Tickets: $12 to $42
Call: 733-0274 or online at diamondheadtheatre.com
|
The plot has two con men planning to rip off investors by over-selling shares in a Broadway musical that will celebrate the life and times of one of the 20th century's greatest tyrants. And the show will do it in such frivolous and offensive style that it will be certainly be the biggest flop in history. Should their "star" protagonist be Lenin? Stalin? Mao? Of course not! The duo persuades a gaggle of wealthy but gullible elderly women to invest in a "can't miss" show that turns out to be "Springtime for Hitler."
But to the crooks' shock and horror, "Springtime for Hitler" becomes, overnight, the hit of the season.
Island stage veterans Dennis Proulx and Don Nakahu star as Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom, respectively, in Diamond Head Theatre's production of this classic Mel Brooks comedy. Daniel Kunkel co-stars as Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind (who thinks Bialystock and Bloom are serious about producing his sincere tribute to the Führer), with Doug Scheer as Roger Debris (the worst director in New York) and Twan Matthews as Carmen Ghia (Debris' "common law-assistant").
DHT Artistic Director John Rampage is directing and choreographing. Expect his treatment of the show's biggest and broadest production number, "Springtime for Hitler," to be one of the highlights of the season.
To quote Brooks, doing a voice-over in a heavy Nu Yawk accent in the 1968 movie that inspired the Broadway musical of 2001:
"Don't be stupid, be a smaahty. Come and join the Nazi paahty!"
The "paahty" starts this weekend and continues through June 1.