By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Saturday 4 November (matinee), runs through 4 February 2024 RUNTIME: 150 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

We can’t think of a less appropriate time to be staging this musical tale of producers who put on a Nazi-themed musical designed to fail to make money but are thwarted by a surprise hit.

• Read on for reasons including how we and our companion made our Catalan stage debuts in this near-the-knuckle rollercoaster

The Producers was originally a 1967 film written by Mel Brooks and starring Gene Wilder which won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar before becoming a 2001 musical and a 2005 film.

The musical has music and lyrics by Brooks who co-wrote the book with Thomas Meehan and we saw it starring Nathan Lane, who is in the film with Matthew Broderick, at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane around the time the film was released.

Its humour draws on exaggerated accents as well as caricatures of Jews, gay people and Nazis peppered with plenty of showbusiness in-jokes as well.

The musical was arguably a bigger success than the original film and so the Barcelona cast led by the co-director and star Àngel Llàcer have a great deal to do and, although we were occasionally confused by the odd edit, there were some real high points to this show.

We last saw Llàcer in the Spanish-language version of La Cage Aux Folles and said of him then: ‘the real draw here is Llàcer who gives us both the outrageous showmanship but also the vulnerability of Zaza.’

We find ourselves sitting on the end of the front row next to the aisle and we wondered as we did back in March this year whether Llàcer would come into the audience, as he did then, speak to us and try to encourage us onstage.

This time he spoke to our companion who is, luckily, fluent in Spanish and was able to bat back the occasional ribbing leavened with praise for Llàcer’s performance and when it came to our turn we simply mimed a polite, no-speaking response.

And we had a lucky escape because those who volunteered were asked as part of the plot of the show to audition for the role of Hitler complete with mini stick-on moustaches.

For us, the show’s highlight was number Keep It Gay, not quite so overt in its Spanish titling, where transvestite director and actor Roger De Bris, played by the gloriously over the top Llàcer is asked by the producers to take on the project titled Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden as butterfly-shaped glitter falls to the floor at the song’s close.

Given the difficult times we now live in, we can understand the decision to downplay big number Springtime For Hitler from the mirrors, high-kicking Nazis and bold swastika use so beloved in previous incarnations.

This, then was a less brash version of The Producers than we’re used to seeing but we completely understand and Llàcer is so funny and hugely talented it’s always a thrill to see what he will turn his hand to next.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy Balana Tickets
• Have you seen The Producers before or seen a Mel Brooks film?
• Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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