Comic Farce Offset By Insensitivity **1/2

Rating: 6/10 (5 February 2006)

The premise for "The Producers" is marvelous. Two guys get a bunch of elderly women to invest in a play and look for subject matter that will be a certain flop. As the investments have gone well over 100%, there will be plenty of money for Max Bialystock (a memorable Zero Mostel) and his sidekick bookkeeper (Leo Blum), played by Gene Wilder, to keep.
Max hires a transvestite director known for his failures to direct this bomb-to-be. Can anyone imagine a musical "Springtime for Hitler," including an opening number where June Taylor-like dancers make a swastika while singing and dancing Springtime for Hitler and Germany? This is outrageous but it works as the play turns out to be an enormous success. What's there left to do? Blow-up the theater and then face the music in court.
What hurts this farce is the subject matter regarding Hitler which is definitely offensive. While I realize that the purpose was to create a sure flop, writer Mel Brooks has gone way over the top. Why not a musical on Julius Caesar? How many people would have been offended by that? I have faith in Brooks as he could have made the latter a riot as well.
Kenneth Mars unfortunately is funny as "the kraut," the guy who authored the Hitler musical.
Have Max and Leo learned anything from their experience? Not really. As jail-birds they get the inmates to invest in "Prisoners of Love." Aren't we really imprisoned by this utter nonsense?