The Producers...

I wasn't much good for anything today, but it was not an unpleasant afternoon. (The morning? I missed the morning. Slept through it.) I watched The Producers, and enjoyed it mightily - not just the John Barrowman scene.

A few thoughts on it:

- It occurs to me that there is a whole (rare) literary genre of "accountant fiction" in which an innocent accountant gets involved in an adventure when he somehow gets involved with the persons he is augiting. Darling Buds of May is an example of the genre.

- I wondered if the whole thing would be so funny to people who weren't into musical theatre

- a few scenes were stolen from - er, I mean, tributes to - The Music Man, some subtle, some not. My favourite was when the accountants were stamping papers in rhythm, much the way the librarians in Marian the Librarian stamp the library books.

- For some reason, it took me ages to recognize Uma Thurman.

- The scene with Franz Lieblink on the New York roof with the pigeons was surely the conceptual origin of Claude Raines in Heroes. I kept expecting Lieblink to turn invisible.

- In the scene where he played the judge, David Huddleston looked scarily like the illustrious local lawyer who handled my divorce.

- the dance in prison reminded me of Johnny Depp's Cry-Baby, though I suppose there are lots of other examples of in-prison song and dance routines

- love the Mel Brooks lyrics:

The urge to merge can rob us of our senses
The need to breed can make a man a drone
We must be on alert with our defenses
For every skirt will test testosterone
So knowing this I severed all connection
With any creature sporting silk or lace
I was firmly headed in the right direction
When suddenly I stumbled on that face

And the so very slashy:

Always playing singles, never doubles
'Til him
Never had a pal to share my troubles
'Til him
He filled up my empty life
Filled it to the brim
There could never ever be
Another one ... like him

My favourite of the songs was "I Want to be a Producer".