Manatee Players’ ‘The Producers’ triumphs over opening-night mishap

It’s kind of one of those “life imitating art” things.

“The Producers” revolves around a musical that seems destined to close in the midst of its premiere performance, but then becomes a huge hit.

The new Manatee Players staging of Mel Brooks’ 2001 musical (based on his 1967 non-musical film) faced potential disaster on opening night. Craig Weiskerger, one of the two title characters, fell and injured himself during a dance number about an hour into the show. That first show was canceled. It turned out Weiskerger had dislocated his shoulder. Manatee Players canceled the second performance so that director Rick Kerby could re-work bits of the show to accommodate Weiskerger, whose right arm was (and still is) in a sling.

Weiskerger and the show are back on stage, and it’s not much of an exaggeration to call his performance and the production triumphant. If you’re thinking about it, you can tell where adjustments were made to the stage movements, but otherwise you can forget very quickly about Weiskerger’s arm.

Pretty much everybody has seen either Gene Wilder or Matthew Broderick in the role of Leo Bloom, the meek accountant who helps launch a scam to bilk a bunch of old ladies out of $2 million. Weiskerger’s performance does not suffer by comparison to those two comedic greats. He’s got a great voice for the role, and his timing and facial expressions are just about perfect.

Weiskerger’s going to get a bit more scrutiny because of his injury, but the rest of the cast deserves just as much praise. Manatee Players newcomer Benjamin Taylor is a delight as Leo’s cohort, the slimy Max Bialystock, and company regular Sarah Cassidy’s gorgeous voice and hilarious acting bring the cartoonish (even by Mel Brooks standards) character of Ulla to life.

There’s lots of great work from the cast in the smaller roles, too — there’s actually not a single substandard one, even though the cast is very large — and the ensemble is fun to watch and listen to, and even kind of charismatic.

You can easily see what a technical challenge the show is. The sets are numerous and some of them are spectacular, and the costumes, which range from street people’s shabby suits to Nazi officers’ uniforms to opulent Broadway chorus costumes, are countless. Set designer Michael Newton-Brown and costumer Becky Evans have given the show a perfect and flavorful look, under the impeccable but unobtrusive lighting by Joseph Oshry.

As for the writing, you pretty much know what to expect from Mel Brooks, so you probably know in advance whether you’re going to like it. The humor is low-brow, silly and vaudevillian, and it’s often scatological, xenophobic and appallingly sexist. It’s light-hearted enough that it’s seldom offensive, but it’s just not funny if you’re disinclined to laugh at those kind of jokes.

Besides that, it’s just not as easy to laugh at the idea of American Nazis in 2017 as it was in 2001 or 1967.

Obviously, a lot of people (maybe even most people) love Brooks’ humor. Even if it’s not up your comedic alley, though, the songs are fun and the Manatee Players production has more than enough going for it to keep you delighted for three hours.

By the way, the spacious new parking lot across the street from the Manatee Performing Arts Center is now open. The crosswalk across Third Avenue West includes lights in the pavement that you can turn on when you press a button at the curb, which is a useful safety feature at night. For Wednesday’s performance of “The Producers,” it appeared that more people were using MPAC’s valet parking than the new lot.

Details: Through Aug. 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 17, 2017 at 12:43 PM with the headline "Manatee Players’ ‘The Producers’ triumphs over opening-night mishap."