Curtain Call’s Ode To Broadway
Filed Under Shower Curtain | Posted on November 20, 2008
“The Producers” became the toast of Broadway upon its 2001 opening thanks largely to Mel Brooks’ approach of offend-everyone humor. In this case, the yucks were drawn from over-the-top accents, exaggerated caricatures of show-biz types, neo-Nazis and homosexuals, and a sendup (albeit loving one) of the theater world itself.
It’s quite a difference from the AIDS-fueled fear that ruled “Rent,” the Great White Way’s previous runaway hit.
Curtain Call is now the first local community theater group to stage the musical, which follows the travails of a down-and-out Broadway producer who connives with his new accountant for a sure-fire way to financial success by overselling shares in a show that is guaranteed to fail.
“The Producers” has songs that entered the popular culture as much as show tunes can in the 21st century, since this form of music hasn’t seen popular radio play since the golden age of the 1950s, when “The Producers” takes place. Barbieri has noticed that many actresses have been using the Ulla-introduction vehicle “When You’ve Got It, Flaunt It” as their audition song.
“Mel Brooks was a drummer,” Barbieri says. “From the comedy to music, everything he does has rhythm. Comedy is hard. You can’t play funny. They all have to be real characters in real situations. The situation has to be funny, not the character.”
Funny was far removed from “Rent,” the Jonathan Larson 1990s New York theater phenomenon. But “Rent” in the 1990s and “The Producers” the following decade helped reclaim the Broadway musical as an American art form. If that statement seems a given, consider the pre-”Rent” box office success stories. More than likely, Andrew Lloyd Webber or Cameron Mackintosh was involved and the shows were imported from Europe.
“Broadway hit a stale patch,” Barbieri says. “There were the shows that came over from England, like Phantom of the Opera’ and Les Miserables,’ and we had nothing. Suddenly there was Rent’ and New Yorkers were hungry for their own stuff. It became a cult phenomenon because it spoke to them on every level.”
Tags: andrew lloyd webber, box office success, broadway producer, cameron mackintosh, caricatures, community theater group, curtain call, financial success, jonathan larson, les miserables, loving one, mel brooks, neo nazis, phantom of the opera, radio play, show biz, show tunes, travails, yucksRelated posts
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