While I am sure that there are people in London jumping up and down right now I have to weigh in on this and say that although Lane will ALWAYS be Max Bialystock to me...I am very concerned about his doing this role in London right now.
Yes, he will be a pro and bail out Brooks and company with Dreyfuss out the running, Lane answered the call. By the way, I doubt Dreyfuss will be back...yes, he was injured but rehearsals were from all accounts not going well and he had expressed a concern over being able to do this role anyway. The real question is, why did he take the role in the first place and WHY did Brooks cast him. But that is beside the point now.
They will probably use the wiggle room Lane has given them to find another actor but who? That has always been the problem with this role...they have had little success finding people in the U.S., in Canada etc and in fact Brad Oscar has had the most success with the role after Lane left it. We will see how Kind does when he takes over in January.
However, Lane was injured during the Frogs, and though he only missed 1.5 shows he was actually worse off than most people thought he was and should be taking a well deserved vacation. As it is pre production on the Producers movie starts in mid-November which means he will be participating in that long distance and the filming starts in mid-February so in spite of the business implications of the Producers in London, in spite of how much they are paying him to go there and save them, in spite of how Londoners will LOVE seeing him, the physical toll on him is likely to be high.
I find myself thinking that Mel Brooks is pushing all the right buttons to get what he needs out of this show and the man who made the role famous and Lane is a big boy and can take care of himself but I still think Brooks should have looked elsewhere for his London Max and let Lane quietly recuperate in the Hamptons so he would be ready for the movie and for his next project (which is hopefully bringing Butley to Broadway).
So, those people who are saying that Brooks never makes a casting error when referencing his choice of Kidman for Ulla in the film ought to think now about Goodman and Dreyfuss and these debacles.
"Life is a lesson in humility"
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