The Producers in town
KARACHI, Aug 27: Made for Stage, a theatrical group initiated by Nida Butt, launched their first ever show based on the Mel Brooks comedy, The Producers, on Saturday.

The show had been done in collaboration with Friends of Literacy and Mass Education (FLAME) with all of the proceeds from the show going towards the FLAME fund. Currently FLAME is being headed by ex-foreign minister Mansoor Alam.

The shows are being held at The Arts Council Theatre and are expected to on till Sept 5. The opening act showed one male and several female members of the cast singing an introduction to a song playing in the background. The end of their performance marked the formal beginning of the play with McAllister, a has-been Broadway producer, bursting in to the scene from under newspapers laid out on a couch. The beginning itself was enough of an attention grabber to have the audience pay close attention throughout the play.

The play itself follows McAllister as he gets his accountant to become his accomplice in setting up a Broadway show intended to flop so that McAllister and the accountant can do away with the production money. They find a script titled ‘Springtime in Hitler’ written by a Hitler enthusiast, which explores Hitler’s not-so-famous traits: dancing and singing. The plan backfires and the show becomes a hit.

The performances by the cast members of The Producers were very good. The cast was composed of actors and actresses that didn’t look older than mere schoolchildren. The lead roles of McAllister, the accountant, Oola (the Swedish secretary) and Ms Touch-and-hold, however, were played by more mature actors. The performances overall seemed very well rehearsed and practised. Being a musical play, there weren’t many from amongst the cast who could really sing and most of the singing was supported by songs played in the background. What was even more interesting to note was that the cast-members who sang, always sang a couple of beats faster than the actual song. Overall, however, the play proved to be very well done and very entertaining.

The Producers was Nida Butt’s debut as a director-cum-producer-cum-set designer. She is a human rights lawyer with a keen interest in drama. She attributed her area of interest as a lawyer wanting to donate Made for Stage’s first performance to charity. FLAME has been actively supporting education of the poor for a very long time now and plans to establish more schools and provide better medical facilities to the underprivileged students studying in their schools from the proceeds gained from the showing of this play.

First Published:
Metropolitan, Dawn
August 28th, 2006