Musical: The Producers

Just watched The Producers at the office...

Yeah.... That's quality of life isn't it?

Caught Nathan Lane on Letterman years ago when the musical was still doing its rounds on Broadway with a star cast. That's how I came to hear about it.

Grabbed the songs. Not particularly impressed, but it has its merits: you don't see something like Springtime For Hitler very often.

Glad that they got Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick and Uma Thurman for the movie. The show would be less without any of them. Especially without Uma.

"Ula dance again!"

(That's probably the most enjoyable part of the show.)


For me, musicals began with Cats.

One and a half dozen years ago, I heard Mr Mistoffelees on the radio. Took a few moments for the magic to take hold of me before I slapped the record button. Only caught a fragment of the song, but I played it back over and over. Broadway musicals not being a popular radio dedication song, it was months before I heard it on radio again in its entirety.

Came University days, and came Napster. During that window period when Napster was still legal, I grabbed tracks of a few dozen musicals. Cats, Les Miserables, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Miss Saigon, Phantom of the Opera, Starlight Express, Man of La Mancha, etc... Those collections even helped me recover the cost of my CD burner.

I have a treasured DVD of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which I asked my sister to hunt down for me in Melbourne.

Then four years ago, a South African troupe revived Cats for one last world tour, that happened to hit KL!! Managed to catch the event at Istana Budaya with some of my best friends.

After that day, I was pretty much done with musicals. I've already experienced the best of plays with the best of company.

For me, musicals ended with Cats.


Nathan Lane is an incredible performer. Uma Thurman was great to watch. Nazi pigeons are all too hilarious.

But as a musical, The Producer doesn't have the magic that I felt in Cats. And a musical without magic, is little different from a Mentos commercial.


Thinking again... My fascination for musicals might date even earlier than Mr. Mistoffelees...

There was one episode of Quantum Leap, where Sam Beckett leapt into the life of a broadway understudy. At the end of the show, Sam performed Man of La Mancha in the nude, (with naughty bits strategically hidden by stage props of course). I've not heard many songs more powerful than the song of Don Quixote. Nor a love song so full of sweet pining, as Dulcinea.

To each his Dulcinea ...

That he alone can name,
To each a secret hiding place:
Where he can find the haunting face --
To light his secret flame ...

For with his Dulcinea beside him so to stand,
A man can do quite anything:
Outfly the bird upon the wing --
Hold moonlight in his hand ...

Yet if you build your life on dreams,
It's prudent to recall:
A man with moonlight in his hands --
Has nothing there at all ...

There is no Dulcinea ...

She's made of flame and air,
And yet how lovely life would seem:
If every man could weave a dream --
To keep him from despair.

To each his Dulcinea ...
Though she's only flame and air ...