Last Friday night Erica and I caught The Producers at the Drafthouse. I had already seen the original 1968 film, the Broadway musical with the original cast in April 2001 and the national touring company production at the Kennedy Center in 2004. Of all the versions I had seen, this was by far the weakest of the bunch, though it was still entertaining.

The pacing was off, especially in the movie’s first half and it seemed a little forced at times. Nathan Lane’s Max Bialystock did not have the same gusto that he did on stage and Matthew Broderick seems to be too old for the part now. Uma Thurman was okay as Ulla though not as good as Cady Huffman was in the musical. Will Ferrell did not add anything to Franz Liebkind other than a song in the closing credits; Brad Oscar did a better job in the original production. Gary Beach (Roger DeBris) and Roger Bart (Carmen Ghia) continued their excellent chemistry from screen, not missing a beat from the stage.

While I am being pretty critical of the movie, I still liked it. The songs are good and the premise of staging a musical about a dictator was good enough to inspire Andrew Llyod Weber to do it for real.

It is worth renting if you don’t feel like seeing it on stage, but if you have an interest in that go ahead do that instead.