Andy Nyman and Marc Antolin ask "where did we go right?" as 'The Producers' heads to the West End

As the smash-hit revival of Mel Brooks’s uproarious musical comedy The Producers opens in the West End, its stars Andy Nyman and Marc Antolin reflect on the show’s glorious return.

This first major London revival of The Producers took a bold risk in how it reinvented the show, which only makes its eventual triumph all the sweeter.

The original 2001 production, a lavish stage musical adaptation of Mel Brooks’s 1967 film, was a West End and Broadway sensation, winning a record-breaking 12 Tony Awards. But could a nimble, small-scale version work just as well at the bijou Menier Chocolate Factory? Happily for all concerned, and for ecstatic audiences, Patrick Marber’s inventive staging has made the musical a riotous hit all over again and, following a sold-out run in 2024, it’s now back in the West End.

That’s the sort of against-all-odds victory which the show’s protagonists, desperate producer Max Bialystock and timid accountant Leo Bloom, might appreciate. In Brooks’s mischievous tale, they team up to run a scam: Max will persuade his besotted elderly female fans to invest in a Broadway show, and, by deliberately creating a flop with no profits, Max and Leo can then pocket the investment. The only trouble is, their nailed-on disaster becomes an improbable smash.

In Brooks’s masterful treatment, The Producers is a riot of bad-taste humour (the duo’s chosen project is Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden) balanced with warm-hearted friendship, romance, and a wry paean to the theatre in all its glorious mystery. Success, of course, is never guaranteed.

A revival of The Producers is a safer bet than most. Yet Andy Nyman and Marc Antolin, who starred as Max and Leo respectively (roles originated by Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick) at the Menier Chocolate Factory and are now reprising their roles at the Garrick Theatre, admit they experienced some trepidation. After all, it had been almost 20 years since the show was in the West End, points out Antolin, “and we did have a few discussions about ‘Has the comedy stood the test of time, will audiences still respond to it?’.Previews were a big test: that was the first time we could properly try out the gags and see if they got a laugh. And they really, really did!”

In fact, Brooks’s humour is astonishingly enduring, says Olivier-winner Nyman, who has previously starred in musicals like last year’s Hello, Dolly!, alongside Imelda Staunton, at the London Palladium, and Fiddler on the Roof at the Menier and Playhouse Theatre. “We haven’t updated it much at all. There were just a couple of lines that stuck out, so it felt right to tweak them a bit.” Antolin, who was Olivier nominated for Little Shop of Horrors at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, adds: “Rather than taking lines away, we’re mainly doing them more knowingly, addressing the fact that we know this is taboo, and we’re all in on the joke.”

Nyman says they were always guided by Brooks’s writing and ethos. “In both his brilliant script and songs, the humour isn’t cruel. There’s nothing mean about it. It’s daring and bold and really pushes the limits, but it’s also refreshing and sweet, and it’s making fun of everyone rather than picking on anyone in particular.” Antolin sums up: “We’re laughing at the characters for saying these outrageous things, not taking their view.”

It’s a question of approach, particularly when it comes to the dynamic between the two men and their jaw-droppingly voluptuous Swedish secretary Ulla. “We finagled the sexual politics of that a little,” Nyman says. “I was very concerned that Max could come over as pervy, or that Ulla becomes sort of a punchline. But actually, there’s a real sweetness to her relationship with these two misfits, and their journey together is more interesting if it’s not reduced to them being lecherous. That’s a minor shift which makes a big difference.”

It’s also part of Marber’s wider strategy to give us a more grounded take on The Producers, explains Nyman. Although there is still plenty of madcap comedy and zany excess, the show becomes even more engaging if you connect with the people at its core.

“The original Susan Stroman production was the most brilliant, dazzling, shiny thing,” recalls Nyman. “But almost 25 years on the world has changed so much, and it’s been interesting to look at it again: to find the grimy reality of Max being down- and-out, Leo being unhappy, and get to the truth of their story. At its heart it’s about two blokes, one who’s lost everything, one who hasn’t yet found who he is, and in their scrambling towards this bonkers goal, they wind up with this unexpected friendship. I think everyone can understand that, and it also raises the stakes of the farce when we care about what success or failure means to them.”

The choice of venue, the petite Menier Chocolate Factory in south-east London, was another factor in this fresh approach. “When I first heard about it, I thought ‘They’re doing The Producers at the Chocolate Factory, are they mad?’” chuckles Antolin. “Then when I read the script, I realised it’s essentially about six characters, and lots of it is set in Max’s poky little office, so of course it can be done in a small space. It actually suits the material perfectly.”

Marber and his creative team, including choreographer Lorin Latarro and set designer Scott Pask, have found ingenious ways to whisk us between different locations, bring in supporting characters played by their brilliant multi-roling cast, and to build the show-within-a-show. “It brings you back to the sort of work you dream of doing when you leave drama school,” says Nyman. “We’re all getting stuck in together. Patrick said early on that it’s a story about six lonely souls who find each other while putting on this show, and it does feel like a love letter to theatre.”

There are some fun upgrades and additions for the West End run, including new cast members, “but we’re definitely retaining the scrappy spirit of it,” adds Nyman. “The Garrick is another lovely intimate venue, so it’ll have a similar feeling of collective joy.”

Although The Producers is a team effort, the show does hinge on one key relationship – the bond between Max and Leo. They’re a study in opposites: the brash, shameless wheeler-dealer who was once the King of Broadway, and who risked it all and lost, versus the cripplingly nervous, neurotic man-child who is so afraid of risk that he is stuck in place. Yet they are connected by their shared dreams of showbiz glory, and embark on an endearing bromance.

It was vital to cast actors who could find that chemistry. When Antolin met with Marber about doing the show, he remembers Nyman was already on board. “Andy was someone I had seen in lots of things and we have loads of friends in common, though we’d never actually met,” Antolin says. “But I just knew we’d get on. It’s been such a joy to do this and discover these quirky characters together, and to put a lot of our own love for each other into the show.”

Nyman chimes in: “It’s just as Marc says, we had this crossover with all these mutual friends, and everyone kept telling me ‘Oh, you’re going to love Marc’. I was thinking ‘Don’t tell me that, what if I don’t?’. But of course we fell in love with each other almost instantly.”

It’s rare, points out Antolin, for a platonic friendship to drive a musical. “It really is the main love story in the show. Our characters light up when they’re together, even when things are going mad, and they each give each other something that the other lacks.”

Nyman agrees, adding: “The show’s big ballad, ‘’Til Him’, comes right at the end, and it’s a very beautiful love song between two men about male friendship. You just don’t often see that represented on stage. Audiences have really responded to it.” Such was the level of their real-life bromance, says Nyman, that the two big questions in his mind during the Menier run were: “One, I wonder if it’ll transfer, because it’s an utter joy, and two, if it does, is Marc going to go, because it wouldn’t be the same without him.”

Fortunately both actors have returned for the West End, alongside Joanna Woodward as Ulla, whose big Act II duet with Leo, “That Face”, is another unexpectedly lovely moment. “Patrick was keen to tap into Leo’s love of big MGM Golden Age musicals,” explains Antolin. “In other versions that song has been more of a naughty romp, but with Gareth Valentine’s new orchestrations it becomes a Gene Kelly-esque dream ballet, which is beautiful to play. Joanna does such a lovely job and she makes Ulla feel like a real person, while also being incredibly funny.”

Of course, Act II also features the side-splitting comic highlight “Springtime for Hitler”, the opening number of the deliberately appalling show-within-a-show. “Me and Andy don’t appear in it, so we always find a place to peek through the curtains and watch the audience,” reveals Antolin. “People are literally bent double, crying with laughter. So many people have said to me that this show is an absolute tonic. It’s just the greatest pleasure to come to the theatre and properly laugh for two hours.”

It’s a wonderful late-in-life gift for the 99-year-old Brooks, too. “He’s been so supportive,” says Nyman. “He sent us lots of videos and messages during rehearsal. I was just happy he knew my name! Then on our final night, he called us during the curtain call to announce to the company and the audience that we were going to the West End.”

It seems that much of that audience will be going with them, says Antolin. “We had repeat visitors at the Menier, and already people were saying they wanted to see it again. It’s definitely a show you want to keep coming back to.” Nyman recalls taking his kids to see it on Broadway aged nine and six, and then again in the West End a few years later. “They were laughing just as hard the second time, maybe more.”

Might the show continue its journey and head over to Broadway? It has a stellar history on the Great White Way. “Of course we’d be stupid to say ‘No, we don’t want to’,” laughs Nyman. “I suppose right now I just want to enjoy how truly incredible it is that we’re doing it in the West End. That’s never to be taken for granted. We’re getting these amazing experiences like seeing our faces on posters on the Tube. It’s such a thrill because you spend a lot of time as an actor being rejected – it’s an endless sacrifice. When the wins come, you’ve got to savour every second of them.”

Book The Producers tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

This article first appeared in the September 2025 issue of London Theatre Magazine.

Photo credit: Andy Nyman and Marc Antolin for The Producer. (Photo by Matt Crockett). Inset: images from the Menier run. (Courtesy of production)