The Producers, The Regent Theatre, The Ipswich Operatic and Dramatic Society, June 18AFTER an evening of watching The Ipswich Operatic and Dramatic Society's version of The Producers, you come away with a spring in your step.

Naomi Cassidy

The Producers, The Regent Theatre, The Ipswich Operatic and Dramatic Society, June 18

AFTER an evening of watching The Ipswich Operatic and Dramatic Society's version of The Producers, you come away with a spring in your step.

The music, dancing, costumes, and lights, continue to spin around your head as the cast performed the famous musical with terrific energy and gusto.

The show is a musical adapted by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan from Brooks' 1968 film of the same name. The original stage production opened on Broadway in 2001, starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. Since then it has received countless awards and been staged across the world.

It is an incredibly ambitious show for an amateur dramatics group to stage with several elaborate sets to produce, many costume changes and a varied and wide selection of orchestral pieces to perform, but they pulled it off. In fact you soon forgot this was an amateur production at all-such was the quality of the show in general.

Having never seen The Producers but heard all the hype, my expectations were high and I wasn't disappointed. The show has a wide appeal, mostly due to the fact that it is very funny (and in fact Brooks began his creative life as a stand up comedian). It tells the tale of a weary producer Max and his accountant Leo who hitch a plan to make millions of dollars by staging a 'rubbish' musical that must fail. However their tasteless musical, Springtime For Hitler, turns out to be a huge success.

Performance-wise it was pretty flawless, with all the main characters, particularly the two leads, played by Roger Jackaman and Paul Stone, doing a stirling job and having excellent comic timing.

Although it is rather long, you hardly notice the time as the story is interesting enough to keep you gripped and the slapstick humour just keeps coming.

For a fun feel-good night out, this is definitely one to catch.

It will have two performances on Saturday.

For tickets call the Regent box office on 01473 433100.

Naomi Cassidy