The Producers

Broadway choreographer-turned-director Susan Stroman's garish adaptation of the monumentally successful musical, which brings Mel Brooks' 1968 film full circle, can be counted an unequivocal triumph on one level: It faithfully reproduces the experience of seeing a stage production from the front row, where dripping sweat, mucky makeup and clouds of saliva spray make the most glorious theatrical fantasy look tatty. Washed-up impresario Max Bialystock (Nathan Lane) is on his last legs: "Funny Boy," a musical comedy version of Hamlet, just closed on opening night, and he's in no mood to coddle officious accountant Leo Bloom (Matthew Broderick), who's auditing the...