My Thoughts on Tony Danza in The Producers - With Spoilers

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 12/20/06 at 5:57pm

Well, ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to say that he wasn't terrible. Far from it, actually. He was neither a revelation nor a disaster. Of course for big fans of the show, you're sure to be a bit disappointed.

Tony Danza plays Bialystock as a tough New Yorker, a painfully unfunny New Yorker. All of the jokes were delivered rapid fire so that they have no meaning. His singing was loungey at best, missing the low notes, dropping words here and there. There was a noticable key change in the midst of Along Came Bialy, much to his advantage. His dancing was pretty good. Yet, he didn't completely suck. He has some (not much) stage presence and has enough charisma to charm the audience.

Roger Bart is, as almost every Leo Bloom was, significantly better than Matthew Broderick. Words can't describe how great he is, adding in his signature Snoopy bark during I Wanna Be A Producer. He noticably flubbed a line during Prisoners of Love. "Let 'em hear you in solitary" became "Now just the pedophiles!" He barely could contain his laughter and mouthed the words "What?" to the audience.

Lee Roy Reams as DeBris is just as good as Gary Beach, playing the role more feminine than Beach did.

Angie Schworer is great as Ulla, as usual. Ditto for Bill Nolte as Liebkind and Brad Musgrove as Carmen Ghia.

The orchestra is in tip-top shape, the ensemble is great, as well. The sets are looking very rickity in their old age. At one point during King of Broadway, the Shubert Theatre facade looked like it was going to fall down.

The place was decently full with a very unresponsive audience.

Just a note:
The "gimme those books fat, fat, fatty" lines are still there, only now they're "gimme those books you ONCE fat, fat, fatty. Yep, that's right. You ONCE were a fat walrus."

The cast was very pleasant at the stage door, Tony as well, if you can catch him before he runs to his car.

[Anthony3]

Posted: 12/20/06 at 6:00pm

I'm glad to hear that Tony wasn't that bad! I love this show! Thanks for the review.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/20/06 at 6:03pm

Well, good for him. As long as he doesn't hurt the show, it's fine and hopefully he'll give them a little bump at the box office so they can stay profitable until Young Frankenstein is ready to go in there.

[DRSisLove]

Posted: 12/20/06 at 6:06pm

Wow, those new lines... uh, suck.

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 12/20/06 at 6:09pm

I feel like Brooks has abandoned this show.

He's a smart guy. A comic genius. How he allowed the movie to be filmed the way it was...is completely beyond me. And now these new lines.

It's upsetting.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 12/20/06 at 6:13pm

Angie Schworer must have enough money to buy her own studio in the theater district with the amount of time she's been in this show! Good for her! She's a wonderful Ulla and apparently loves to work.

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 12/20/06 at 6:24pm

Somewhere, Henry Goodman is laughing his ass off.

[thevolleyballer]

Posted: 12/20/06 at 6:32pm

Thanks for the review. Sounds like I'm not missing much by not seeing Tony. Still, what cracks me up is the warning of spoilers for this show. It's like somebody giving spoilers about Humpty Dumpty falling off his wall.

[Horton]

Posted: 12/20/06 at 6:36pm

Somewhere, Henry Goodman is laughing his ass off.

Reading that I was laughting my ass off.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 12/20/06 at 6:41pm

When most of the jokes fell flat (and a lot did), I kept thinking of Henry Goodman, who was said to have been playing the "darker" side of Bialystock.
Updated On: 12/20/06 at 06:41 PM

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 12/20/06 at 6:52pm

I didn't see him. What did Henry Goodman do to make the jokes fall flat?

[bwayondabrain]

Posted: 12/20/06 at 7:39pm

'You "once" fat, fat, fatty?'

Wow. Thats beyond stupid.

[DRSisLove]

Posted: 12/20/06 at 8:01pm

I'm still wondering, what was SO bad about Henry Goodman?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 12/20/06 at 8:47pm

Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall?

When did this happen? Did they put him together again or are they stuck with an omelet ? Enquiring minds want to know

Re Goodman. How could he be bad with Good in his name ?

Updated On: 12/20/06 at 08:47 PM

[Broadwayboy2631]

Posted: 12/20/06 at 9:19pm

Angie Schworer has been there forever!!! You'd think that she would be able to get another job on broadway.

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 12/20/06 at 9:23pm

Well, there's always gonna be one in each show. Steve hasn't left Beauty and the Beast since he joined. I don't see Sarah Saltzberg leaving Spelling Bee. She's good so let her stay! She's also getting paid a butt lode!

[Horton]

Posted: 12/20/06 at 9:47pm

Goodman in the producers:
I saw him, he was not horrid far from it, but I think the producers of The Producers wanted somebody to make a carbon copy of Nathan Lane, and a great actor such as Henry Goodman was just not willing to sell out and not make it his own. And so they let him go, not for talent they were just going in a different direction than him.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 12/20/06 at 9:52pm

Danza didn't have the vocal power to sing the songs. And he missed a lot of the comic moments. But he made the role his own. His usual "beaten down, tough as nails New Yorker" really fit.

[StarStruckGB]

Posted: 12/20/06 at 10:06pm

I wonder what a certain Mr. Nathan Lane thinks about all this T.Danza nonsense...

[DRSisLove]

Posted: 12/20/06 at 10:12pm

I doubt Mr. Lane cares.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 12/20/06 at 10:45pm

I'm sure Nathan Lane cares very little about Danza, or any other Bialystock in this show. He's collected his Tony and his huge pay check, and has moved on to other projects.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 12/21/06 at 12:13am

I went back to Toronto and thought "why not see the production of the Producers" which was playing at The Pantages. The guy playing Max was SO bad, after having seen both Nathan Lane AND Henry Goodman that I almost walked out - if it weren't for the fact that the theatre is in such a godforsaken area that I didn't want to walk the two blocks to the main street alone at night. So I waited for the others in the small crowd (straining to get to 30% of capacity, I think).

There's no moral here. His performance never got better.

On the other hand, the kid playing Leo Bloom was AMAZING (he played Golum in Lord of the Rings).

Updated On: 12/21/06 at 12:13 AM

[StephanietheStar]

Posted: 12/21/06 at 12:21am

I would LOVE to see Roger Bart....gaaahh...I love that man and I'm never able to see him....gahhh...

[thevolleyballer]

Posted: 12/21/06 at 2:38am

Well, there's always gonna be one in each show. Steve hasn't left Beauty and the Beast since he joined. I don't see Sarah Saltzberg leaving Spelling Bee. She's good so let her stay! She's also getting paid a butt lode!

I'm not gonna bother on this one. :) I just want to say that the post amused me.

[JKlock]

Posted: 12/21/06 at 5:59am

Roger is definetly the best Leo Bloom in my opinion. Along with Hunter Foster, they are both terrific.