New York, 1959. Max Bialystock was once the king of Broadway, but now all his shows close on opening night. Things turn around when he’s visited by the neurotic accountant Leo Bloom, who proposes a scheme tailor-made for producers who can only make flops: raise far more money than you need, then make sure the show is despised. No one will be interested in it, so you can pocket the surplus. To this end, they produce a musical called Springtime for Hitler written by escaped Nazi Franz Liebken. Then they get the insanely flamboyant Roger De Bris to direct. Finally, they hire as a lead actress the loopy Swedish bombshell Ulla (whose last name has over 15 syllables). As opening night draws near, what can go wrong? Well, there’s no accounting for taste…
The movie version of the Broadway production of The Producers (which was, of course, originally based on a movie) came out in 2005, featuring several of the original Broadway cast members, with a few Hollywood names thrown in for good measure. The film is quite faithful to the show, although there were cuts. “King of Broadway,” “In Old Bavaria” and “Where Did We Go Right?” are the major songs that were left out. 
The second act reprise of “Opening Night” was also cut, as were sections of “Along Came Bialy”. However, many of the cut scenes can be found in the extra features on the DVD. The movie was nominated for four Golden Globe awards.
As someone who LOVED the original cast on Broadway, I was very excited to see this movie, but I have to admit to being a tiny bit disappointed. Although, it definitely does have its moments, it feels at times very much like a stage show on film. In other words, the over-exaggerated gestures and pratfalls that work in a theatre, seem forced and phoney on film. Still, that’s a fairly minor quibble in the grand scheme of things. I was thrilled to have a lot of the original cast intact, particularly Gary Beach and Roger Bart, who make me laugh constantly. Will Ferrell was really quite good as Franz, and Uma Thurman was all right as Uma – as far as Hollywood casting goes, these two did quite well. And of course Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick are born for these roles.
If you never got a chance to see the show live, the film is a good substitute. As I said, it just didn’t have the pure joy and zany energy of the stage show, but that’s something that just occurs in a theatre, and is very, very difficult to recreate on film, no matter how talented the cast or director. I guess in the end, like the song says, “There’s Nothing Like a Show on Broadway.”
Learn much more about the film at The Internet Movie Database!