Stage Dragon: The Producers, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre

Published on: 7 Jun, 2018
Updated on: 7 Jun, 2018

By Ferenc Hepp

There is another familiar company on the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre’s main stage this week, namely, Guildford’s very own Performance Preparation Academy.

They return for the third season running, and this year are staging the award winning The Producers, adapted by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan from the original 1967 film.

The Producers runs at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre until Saturday, June 9.

This comedy musical is all about the unlikely partnership of Max Bialystock, a Hollywood producer, who enlists the help of his accountant, Leo Bloom, in order to produce the worst musical ever written (Springtime for Hitler) and with the help of some generous funding from Max’s collection of old ladies and their ‘checkies’ the plan is to open and close the show within the shortest period of time and run away with the money.

However, it turns out to be a huge success, much to the annoyance of Max, whereas Leo ends up having a rather nice time with initially their receptionist and then star of the show, the Swedish blonde bombshell, Ulla Inga Hansen Benson Yansen Tallen Hallen Svaden Swanson.

The set is quite minimalistic but works well and the set changes which are mostly completed by cast members are slick enough not to slow down the pace.

Jordan Harrison takes on the challenging role of Bialystock and he does do a good job despite a lot of sound balance issues throughout the evening which meant that a lot of the time the principals were too loud whereas the ensemble were not clearly audible.

Harrison has a lot of great moments, especially the tough Betrayed number which he handles brilliantly, although he could do with being more expressive facially.

His partner in crime, Bloom, is played by Jordan Newman (in this performance) and he does demonstrate good physicality and a sense of innocence which works well for the role.

There are many familiar numbers in this show and on the whole they are staged very well, however, I Wanna Be A Producer has a lack of cast on stage, only to be replaced by some flats and backstage singing, which I find odd as there are enough cast members to perform this live on stage.

This number lacked the contrast between Bloom the accountant Bloom the ‘wannabe’ producer which could have been aided by some clever lighting effects and more people on stage.

Keeley-May Clarkson is a very convincing Swedish Ulla with a good voice and there are some very funny moments being provided by Zak Lawrence as the extrovert Franz Liebkind and his pigeons.

Jack Oliver does a brilliantly camp Carmen Ghia and Charles Camrose really gets going in the second act as Roger De Bris when, as the director of Springtime for Hitler, he has to take on the lead role.

There is also good support from the whole ensemble, especially the chorus of old ladies, with a lot of imaginative choreography by Lewis Butler and interesting direction by Butler and Nick Charters, especially at times when the majority of the cast are on stage.

I came away smiling and wish these youngsters a successful future, whatever they have planned.

The Producers runs until Saturday, June 9, and tickets are available via the website: www.yvonne-arnaud.co.uk or by calling the box office on 01483 440000.