Vegas Producers Will Be 90 Minutes Long
By Kenneth Jones
10 Nov 2006
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David Hasselhoff and Mel Brooks at the casting announcement for the Las Vegas Producers.
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| photo by Aubrey Reuben | The 2007 Las Vegas production of Mel Brooks' Tony Award-winning The Producers will be trimmed to the tastes of the resort town's audiences.
The new production starring Brad Oscar as Max and David Hasselhoff as Roger DeBris, to start Jan. 31, 2007, at the Paris Las Vegas, will be trimmed to one act and 90 minutes.
Brooks said at a press conference that the cuts have been made, and it will come in at a lean 88 minutes.
No announcement has been made about which songs or scenes have been cut. No further casting has been announced.
The general wisdom in producing circles is that antsy, distracted, gaming-minded crowds in Las Vegas don't want to invest too much time or thought in the apparently passive act of theatregoing, so the art gets slashed to accommodate them.
Avenue Q, Hairspray and The Phantom of the Opera have been edited for time there. The long-running Mamma Mia!, however, is seen in its full two-act version in Vegas, where spandex, glitter and ABBA are catnip to tourists.
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The Producers opened in 2001 to raves, and was the recipient of the most Tony Awards in Broadway History (12, including Best Musical). Based on Mel Brooks' Academy Award-winning 1968 film of the same name, the show tells the story of down-on-his-luck theatrical producer Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom, a mousy accountant. Together, with the help of their flamboyant director, Roger DeBris (Hasselhoff), they hatch the ultimate scam: raise more money than you need for a sure-fire Broadway flop and pocket the difference. Their theatrical fiasco is the musical Springtime for Hitler.
Hasselhoff's theatrical career began with his Broadway debut in Jekyll and Hyde. He also appeared as Billy Flynn in the West End company of Chicago.
The Vegas run will have direction and choreography by Susan Stroman, who co- created the original production and also directed the film version.
The Producers was originally produced on the New York stage by Rocco Landesman, Live Nation, The Frankel-Baruch-Viertel-Routh Group, Bob and Harvey Weinstein, Rick Steiner, Robert F.X. Sillerman and Mel Brooks in association with James D. Stern and Douglas Meyer and by special arrangement with StudioCanal.
Paris Las Vegas is a Harrah's Entertainment resort, boasting a 50-story replica of the Eiffel Tower.
Tickets are now on sale for February, March and April 2007. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Paris Las Vegas box office at (877) 374-7469 or online at parislasvegas.com. Group tickets can be purchased for groups of 15 or more by calling (800) 828-3830.
The Producers will play seven shows a week: 8 PM Monday and Tuesday, 8 PM Thursday-Sunday, with a matinees 2 PM Saturday. No performances Wednesday. Tickets range $75.50 to $143.50.
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