by Christopher Rawson
It’s time to bid farewell to the stars of “The Producers,” Lewis J. Stadlen (Max) and Don Stephenson (Leo), based on brief chats as they were leaving after entertaining Pittsburgh for three weeks in the national premiere of the road company.
But first, some “Producers” trivia to add to the flap about that disappearing/reappearing f-word.
Audiences on the final Sunday didn’t get to see two of the show’s funny, typically non-PC bits –the faux spiritual lament in the accounting office number (“Oh, I debits all de mornin’, an’ I credits all de eb’nin’ “) and O’Houllihan, the black Irish cop in Act 2 (“just like me darlin’ mither used to make back in dear old Killarney”).
Jerald Vincent, the African-American cast member who does these bits, had to leave town on family matters. But the tour has saved money by not having an African-American swing (i.e., an understudy who covers many roles). So the plan was to cut those two bits and have one of the swings take the rest of Vincent’s performance “track” (theater-goer, song-less accountant, Nazi soldier, etc.).
That’s what happened Sunday, with Greg Reuter as swing. But Stadlen told me that since “an important critic” (who?) was coming to town to see the show Saturday, the producers flew in an African-American ensemble member from New York that day to do those two bits.
The Sunday audiences weren’t that important. That’s a shame, since equal opportunity disrespect is the essence of Mel Brooks. Black stereotypes deserve to be mocked along with the lampoons of Jews, gays, Swedish bombshells, old ladies, etc. Maybe they need to add another swing.
Back to the farewells. Aside from all the hard work, both stars had a good time here. Stadlen knows Pittsburgh from several tours and because he just likes old cities; Stephenson knows it from the couple of months he and wife Emily Loesser spent here in 2001 when they both did “By Jeeves” at the Public Theater.
Stephenson and Loesser (daughter of Frank Loesser and Jo Sullivan, by the way) are traveling with their baby, Hallie. “She has quite a career herself,” said Stephenson of his wife, “but we thought it important I do this,” and since their child is in her first word/starting to crawl stage, “I didn’t want to miss all the fun stuff.” They went to the zoo and the science center and spent a lot of time at Gymboree classes in Monroeville. “I tried to get Lew [Stadlen] to come, because you just lie on the mat while the teacher blows bubbles.”
They needed some of that on stage. “I’m covered in bruises,” Stephenson said. “We fall a lot, we slap each other, grab each other. The only thing I can compare it to is being an athlete.” On a two-show day, they’re on stage for more than 5 1/2 hours, “and it’s not like we’re standing around.”
As the tour progresses, keeping it fresh will be key. Stephenson remembers this difficulty from the “Titanic” tour, where they had to seem astonished at the first sight of the ship. “So we’d act like there were pink elephants on the side of it one day, another color the next. It’s like tricking your brain.”
Stephenson figures that Leo is a surrogate for the audience. “My reaction is their reaction. All that screaming and naked showgirls … and I have to experience Roger De Bris in the dress for the first time, like them, even though I’ve seen LeRoy [Reams] a million times. I can’t put my brain on neutral. … Mel says Leo is the heart of the show, the one who changes. It’s important for me to show that, so the audience will be taken on the journey.”
Stadlen is a friend from previous visits here, so we mainly chatted baseball — he has the pain of being a Mets fan. He remembered Tom Atkins fondly from when Atkins was on Broadway in “The Changing Room” and Stadlen in “Minnie’s Boys” and they were on the same softball team in the show league. They also appeared together at Williamstown in “Arturo Ui.” And he recalled Lenora Nemetz as an energetic chorus kid in the CLO’s 1972 “Minnie’s Boys,” which he called “better than in New York.”
Stadlen and Stephenson are contracted to the tour for eight months, which ends with eight weeks in San Francisco in March and April.
The company then goes to Los Angeles for 32 weeks, but not the two leads. (That’ll be hard — “saying goodbye to this group,” said Stadlen.) In L.A., Max and Leo will be played by Jason Alexander and Martin Short.
But there has been talk of Stadlen and Stephenson moving into the Broadway production at that point. Everything, of course, is still up for negotiation — and the London version is talked of for next fall.
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