Manatee Players kick off 2017-18 season with ‘The Producers’

Rick Kerby said he likes to start the Manatee Players with a big show, something that’s splashy and technically impressive, with big sets and lots of costumes.

He also likes to bring Manatee Players audiences shows they’ve never seen before on the company’s main stage.

So “The Producers” is pretty much an ideal way to start the 2017-18 season.

The Mel Brooks musical opens Thursday for a three-week run in Stone Hall at the Manatee Performing Arts Center. Kerby, the producing artistic director of Manatee Players, is directing the show.

“The Producers” is such a large-scale production, Kerby said, that the massive Stone Hall stage barely holds it.

“When we came here (from the old Riverfront Theatre) we were so excited to have all this room,” Kerby said. “And now we’re struggling to get this show onto the stage and move it around. But we’ll get there.”

Of course, Kerby didn’t choose “The Producers” only — or even primarily — because it’s big. It’s also funny and familiar.

“It’s hysterical, first of all,” he said. “It was a movie that was turned into a musical and then turned into a movie again. Everybody knows some of the lines from this show.”

The original movie, from 1968, was a non-musical, written by Brooks, about two theatrical producers (played memorably by Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder) who devise a scam. They’ll get a lot of people to invest in a show, get more money than they need, and then put on a terrible show that’s bound to close. They’ll tell the investors they lost their money, but they’ll pocket what’s left.

Of course, the show, a pro-Nazi musical that features the song “Springtime for Hitler,” becomes a surprise hit.

Brooks turned the film into a musical, and it ended up winning the Tony Award for Best Musical in a production that features Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick.

Craig Weiskerger (who was recently Seymour in “Little Shop of Horrors” for Manatee Players) plays Leo, the Wilder/Broderick role in the Manatee Players staging.

“I’ve always wanted to do this show,” he said. “I’m a long-time Mel Brooks fan — ‘Spaceballs,’ ‘Blazing Saddles.’ Leo in particular is a bucket-list role for me.”

“The Producers” sets the tone for the 2017-18 Manatee Players season, which is heavy on shows that the company hasn’t presented before.

Of the shows on the main stage this season — “The Producers,” “Mame,” “A Little Night Music,” “Annie,” “Nine,” “Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “Little Women” and “Nice Work If You Can Get It” — all but one are Manatee Players premieres.

“I’m always trying to bring our audiences something new that they haven’t seen on our main stage before,” Kerby said. “Even ‘Mame,’ we’ve never done that classic. ‘Annie’ is the only show in the season that we’ve done before.”

Details: Aug. 10-27, Stone Hall at the Manatee Performing Arts Center, 502 Third Ave. W., Bradenton. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. $27-$37. 941-748-5875, manateeperformingartscenter.com.

This story was originally published August 9, 2017 at 4:56 PM with the headline "Manatee Players kick off 2017-18 season with ‘The Producers’."