The Producers score a flip-flop

March 8, 2009

The Producers score a flip-flop

3/9/09


What happens when you aim for a flop on Broadway and wind up with a hit on your hands? That’s the plot of The Producers, running through March 28 at the Old Town Playhouse in Traverse City, with a cast of more than 30 staging one of the most celebrated musicals of all time.
The plot: “A down-on-his-luck Broadway producer and his mild-mannered accountant come up with a scheme to produce the most notorious flop in history, thereby bilking their backers (all “little old ladies”) out of millions of dollars. Only one thing goes awry: the show, “Springtime For Hitler,” is a smash hit. The antics of Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom as they maneuver their way fecklessly through finding a show, hiring a director, raising the money and finally going to prison for their misdeeds is a lesson in broad comic construction.”
Written by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan, the musical is directed locally by Michelle Dungjen, with Sam Clark as music director and June Neal, producer. The cast includes:
Phil Murphy (Max Bialystock), Brian Dungjen (Leo Bloom), Brett Nichols (Franz Liebkind), Sherry White (Ulla Inga Hansen), Roger DeBris (Mike Nunn), Christopher Peterson (Carmen Ghia) and Diana Morgan (Hold Me-Touch Me). Singers and dancers include: Beverly Cady, Phil Callighan, Tom Cilluffo, Jamie Colburn, Darryn Crocker, David Curtis, Ty Curtis, Keith Firstenberg, Barbara Goodearl, Judy Heffron, Chris Lambdin, Toby Lucius, Diana DiMarco Morgan, Jamie Moyers, Meg Parker, Donna Peterson, Bradley Roswell, Clare Shipstead, Judy Sines, Margaret Anne Slawson, Elizabeth Stewart, Cat Tallman, Lesley Alicia Tye, Becca Walton and Kevin Weber.