Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Hollywood Bowl: The Producers


The stage

We’ve had mini-season tickets to the Hollywood Bowl off and on since we moved back to L.A. almost 20 years ago. The Bowl is fun—and certainly historic—but the journey getting there from Culver City—or from just about anywhere, for that matter—can be grueling, especially during the week. This year the Bowl is offering several good programs on Sunday, so we bought the 4-event mini-package.

Grabbing a snack before the show

Our first show was The Producers, Mel Brooks’ hysterically irreverent musical about two theatrical producers who hope to make a bundle staging the sure-to-be-a-flop play “Springtime for Hitler.” The cast was great: Richard Kind (Max Bialystock), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Leo Bloom), Rebecca Romijn (the voluptuous Ulla), Dane Cook (Nazi-sympathizer Liebkind), and role originators Gary Beach (who won the Tony in 2001 for playing Roger Du Bris) and our favorite Roger Bart (Carmen Ghia). Though we’d seen The Producers twice before, we laughed just as hard this time around. Plus Mel Brooks, himself, came out during the curtain call, which was a thrill. 


But the best part: traffic wasn’t bad at all, going or coming! Sundays at the Bowl are the best.


No comments: