Did "THE PRODUCERS" Deserve the Tony's?- Page 3

[americanboy99]

Posted: 5/29/07 at 10:54pm

I agree that the Tony voters just kind of wanted to see it happen, and they figured that year was just the year they would do it.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 5/29/07 at 10:55pm

It was a weak year indeed. Asking the same question about A CHORUS LINE--competing against CHICAGO and PACIFIC OVERTURES may give you different answers.
I think David Yazbeck deserved the Best Score award over Mel Brooks, apart from that, I think it's probably safe to say the show was the most deserving of that particularly season (doesn't mean it's good, I actually can't stand it but that's another issue).

[americanboy99]

Posted: 5/29/07 at 11:02pm

It is just rather upsetting that historically the most winning musical Broadway has ever seen is that. I mean, HELLO DOLLY and A CHORUS LINE, yes... but THE PRODUCERS, God no!

[EdmundOG]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 5:53am

I find the Producers to be bounds ahead of Hello Dolly.

[americanboy99]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 10:05am

I COMPLETELY disagree.

HELLO DOLLY is one of the most charming, perfect musicals ever on Broadway. A classic in every way.

[fakemyway2thetop]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 10:41am

I definitely agree with sondheimboy2. Would like to have seen The Full Monty win for score and possibly even direction as the rumor is that Stroman didn't do much of the directing for The Producers.

[SamIAm]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 12:19pm

OMG...have we NOT flogged this topic to death? Enough already. Whether you believe they deserved the awards or not, the simple fact is that there is a TONY committee and that they vote (sometimes logically and sometimes illogically). The win was over five years ago. Let's move on. There are certainly enough strange nominations and ommissions in this year's categories for us to discuss current issues.

[EponineAmneris]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 12:46pm

In a word, yes See yankeefans' comments

[americanboy99]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 12:48pm

SamIAm-

Don't look at the thread.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 1:03pm

No.

Book: The Full Monty
Score: Jane Eyre
Lighting: Jane Eyre
Featured Actress: Kathleen Freeman
Actor: Patrick Wilson (Nathan Lane gave the same performance in Guys and Dolls and Forum)
Direction: Jack O'Brien

Personally, I would have given Best Musical to Full Monty (though Jane Eyre was my favorite of the season, despite it's flaws), but like Spamalot, I could see Producers taking Best Musical simply because it was a major crowd-pleasing hit.

Though it was not a win for The Producers, Best Actress should have gone to Marla Schaffel. That and lighting design were the tow BIGGEST goofs that season for the Tonys.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 1:32pm

Few shows in recent memory have created that kind of buzz...the advance word from the first out-of-town try-out was already strong and the show opened to the kind of across-the-board rave reviews that Broadway producers dream of. From there it was a giant snowball gatherimg momentum as ir rolls down a hill. Perhaps the voters went a little overboard but not much.

I just saw a recent local staging of THE FULL MONTY and its score is lacklustre. Many of the songs are time wasters and the finale,Let it Go, repeats the title phrase endlessly.

JANE EYRE (at least at its Toronto premiere in 1996) was a heavy-handed adaptation of a famous novel that was trying too hard to be another LES MIZ but without the two key ingredients that made LES MIZ so popular: characters you are about and a richly melodic through-composed score.

As for CLASS ACT, well you'll notice it is hardly ever even discussed here now. I did not see it either off-Broadway or on but I have read the script (published in SHOW MUSIC magazine) and heard the cast album. The script glosses along in an "and-then-I-wrote" fashion but without really establishing why we should care about Ed Kleban. The score is good but not outstanding: none of the songs grab you the same way as the simple old-fashioned show tunes of THE PRODUCERS.

I do prefer years where several good shows share the wealth, but really in 2001 PRODUUCERS pretty much got what it deserved.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 1:47pm

"I just saw a recent local staging of THE FULL MONTY and its score is lacklustre."

See, that is exactly how I felt about The Producers score. I can barely recall a single tune other than Springtime for Hitler simply because people sing that one phrase any time the show is mentioned. I remember a bit of Along Came Bialy because the number was repeated on television spots like it was Seasons of Love from Rent.

"JANE EYRE (at least at its Toronto premiere in 1996) was a heavy-handed adaptation of a famous novel that was trying too hard to be another LES MIZ but without the two key ingredients that made LES MIZ so popular: characters you are about and a richly melodic through-composed score."

Virtually nothing about Jane Eyre reminded me of Les Miserables. The score sounded closer to The Secret Garden to me and the only similarity in the staging was a turntable, though used quite differently. But I guess if you're going to be a sung-through dramatic musical based on a calssic novel, Les Miserables is probably a decent bench mark upon which all others will be compared.

[Jon]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 1:52pm

Full Monty desrved an award for the ugliest set design in history. WTF was up with that car?

[madbrian]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 2:08pm

Actually, I thought Tom Sawyer deserved the award for lighting...

As for The Producers, it probably deserved about half of what it received. Jane Eyre and The Full Monty definitely deserved some awards (score, supporting actress, etc.)

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 2:13pm

The Producers didn't deserve anything at all.
Im thrilled it's closing, so maybe Broadway will have a better show to add to the current productions.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 2:13pm

I was at the Toronto opening of JANE EYRE in December 1996 and it came across as dull. Of course a few nights later I was at the premiere of RAGTIME and that eclipsed JANE EYRE and just about everything else that year. A lot of RAGTIME grabbed me the first time out but only two songs stood out in JANE's score.
("The Gypsy" and "Forgiveness" ... I Knew you were going to ask!)

For me the best song in FULL MONTY is "Scrap" - a perfect number to establish the situation. Nothing else really lives up to that. “You walk with Me” is beautiful and touching. The rest I find serviceable but not demandingly memorable.

I also find that much of PRODUCERS is vaguely reminiscent of older show tunes as recycled by Mel Brooks and arranged by Glen Kelly. The result is an enjoyable pastiche-style score. I especially like the sparkling Overture that was (Maddeningly) cut down to 30-seconds in the theatre. The score (to me) sounds like a late 50s/early 60s big brassy musical comedy... the kind they just don't write these days.

Once curiosity: In the 50s/60s a run of 2,500 performances would be phenomenal: up there with OKLAHOMA! and HELLO DOLLY! Today people seem to view it as somehow a disappointment.

[i_heart_roger_bart]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 2:52pm

Definitely. Yes, I AM completely biased as it was my favorite show ever. But I think it was an incredible production, and considering its competition was definitely favorable for most, if not all its winnings.

I think another thing you have to take into account, which doesn't really have much to do with the Tony-winning process, but it was the events surrounding the show's opening. It brought a lot of interest back to Broadway. And regardless of the reason for that, with it skyrocketing the price of seeing a Broadway show, it did a lot of good for Broadway, IMO. Again, this is kind of off the topic of the Tonys, but I digress.

[DirtyRottenGirl]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 3:57pm

I think it deserved a lot of them because it was a slow year but some of the technical awards and best supporting actress no way.

[simon_wilkie]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 5:31pm

Although this is a long thread that seems pretty divisive, I'll add my bit.

I'm not really too up-to-date on what was on Broadway in 2001. I'm British and only visited NYC for the first time last July, but I have seen The Producers numerous times in its three incarnations, and I've got to say that it DID deserve the recognition it got- can't comment on whether it was better than the other shows nominated, but they would have to go some to beat Mel Brooks' masterpiece.

Brooks hit pure gold when he produced the show- it was the best night out I've ever had at the theatre, and I saw it with a much later cast in Broadway who were fantastic. Also, on the current UK Tour, although I wasn't keen on John Gordon Sinclair, Cory English was fantabulous as Max, bringing his own interpretation and unique style to the role. Peter Kay as Roger was also fab, not as good as Gary- the rightful Tony winner though.

I could have watched the Prodocuers ever night it was in Manchester recently if I had the cash! And I never get bored of listening to the album or watching the movie.

What Brooks did was take theatre - and the musical genre back to its roots. He un-did all this melodramatic, romantic tosh that Lloyd Webber brought to the stage with Phantom and Boublil and Schonberg with Les Mis and rejuvenated the "Musical-comedy". The show had a great, memorable score; good characters; witty book; nice sets and costumes and was based on a film by the greatest comedy director of recent Hollywood cinema (IMO). I'm currently re-watching all of Brooks films and his sense of pun and pastiche is second to none. Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein (along with The Producers) are perfect comedy films.

I say bring on Young Frankenstein- and hopefully win Brooks a sack-load more Tony's!!!

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 5:52pm

If I recall correctly from one of his columns at the time, Ken Mandelbaum stood alone among the New York Critics Circle in voting in favor of The Full Monty as Best Musical. Way to go, Ken!

I am still aghast that a man who cannot even read music and who sang his ideas into a tape recorder for his orchestrator has a Best Score Tony sitting on his shelf. The Producers score is really pretty much crap from top to bottom. Its book, on the other hand, is pure gold. How Tony voters could miss the mark on that count, I'll never understand.

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 5:53pm

I would also like to take this opportunity to add that the musical phrase "I want to be a producer..." is exactly the same as when Winnie the Pooh sings "I'm just a little black rain cloud..." That's been eating at me for years.

[americanboy99]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 6:07pm

Ourtime992-

WOW! It is... I have never noticed that.

[americanboy99]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 6:08pm

[americanboy99]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 6:09pm

[americanboy99]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 6:09pm