Need a laugh or a hundred? Look no further than The Producers at the Garrick Theatre, which updates Mel Brooks’ classic film – and the original Broadway production by Brooks – with absolute glee in production directed by Patrick Marber. Given the trigger-happy times we live in, with extreme voices wanting to jump on anything anybody says and twist it to their own ends, you’d think there might be some nervousness about some elements of The Producers; the whole two Jewish theatre hustlers putting on a Nazi play to make some insurance cash thing. Far from it. In fact, the show triples-down on offensiveness with such gusto that it’s impossible to be offended by it. Though pity those who arrive unawares.
“We have had people come in who do not know the story, and you just hear these shockwaves when I’m reading the script and say, Springtime for Hitler,” says Andy Nyman, who stars as Max Bialystock in the show.
