You don't need a big stage for a big Musical
Of course, we all know how great the original Mel Brooks’ film was, and how successful the subsequent Broadway and West End musicals were as well – but to fit this into the Menier – well that won’t come off. Except, of course that it does, and in spades.
The two key actors - Andy Nyman (Max Bialystock) and Mark Antolin (Leo Bloom) – are not West End stars – yet – but their interpretation of the roles under Director Patrick Marber seems strong and convincing.
Nyman is no Zero Mostel, of course, but then, who is?, but his slighter Bialystock works, and, to be honest, his courting of his elderly ‘angels’ is more convincing.
Antolin (who has a good voice) moves from blanket clutching angst to almost svelte woo-er almost convincingly, aided by a very competent Joanna Woodward as the Swedish sex-bomb Ulla, who is touching in her unbridled naivety.
Of course, you also need an outrageous ‘anything but former’ Nazi, Franz Liebkind (Harry Morrison) and the outrageously cross-dressing Director Roger de Bris (Trevor Ashley). And you get them.
Liebkind’s pigeons (their feathers form swastikas) are performed as glove puppets by the black clad chorus line, (6 men and 6 women) who make up the elderly angels, the Nazi Chorus lines, and a New York Jewish community, amongst others. 12 people ended up going a long way, aided by an open attitude to cross-dressing to boost numbers.
In the end, it’s the writing that counts, and Brooks’s very open attitude to offend everyone for humour’s sake paid off, as it always has done. Just as the audience that sees the opening night of ‘Springtime for Hitler’ overcomes their horror because of the power of the satire – so do we.
Joke transcends woke.