A knowing wink and a wry smile anchor Mel Brooks' endlessly zany, pun-filled musical The Producers. The song-filled show-about-a-show proved a Broadway smash and is now gunning for mainstream laughs.

Brooks' laugh-a-minute vision is a deft skewering of New York 's heralded theater scene disguised as a big, old-fashioned musical, complete with dancing chorines and glitzy stage productions. But make no mistake--Brooks' ribald humor is what gives The Producers
its zing.

It's there in the fluidly choreographed flirtation between uptight accountant Leo Bloom (Matthew Broderick) and leggy Swedish vamp Ulla (Uma Thurman). It's there in washed-up producer Max Bialystock's (Nathan Lane) creative ways of raising funds for his projects. And it's there in a jaw-dropping dance sequence featuring cross-dressing director Roger De Bris (Gary Beach), his partner Carmen Ghia (Roger Bart) and a parade of gay stereotypes that would be offensive if the whole thing weren't so utterly ridiculous.

Indeed, Brooks' manic musical straddles a precarious balance of sharp satire, off-color humor and a sincere love for musical-theater. It's given a shiny pop polish by Tony Award-winning director and choreographer Susan Stroman, whose Broadway credits include Contact, Oklahoma!, The Frogs, Showboat and The Producers. She stays true to the material--and the Broadway version--and slightly widens the scope for a movie audience.

It will be interesting to see how audiences respond to Brooks' carnival of clowns, a show that includes references and sequences involving swishy drag queens, sex with the elderly and pro-Nazi sentiments--however ridiculed. No one is safe in this game.

The Producers' songbook is also propelled in a decidedly old-school format, a la the heyday of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. The tunes often come without notice and don't always propel the plot forward. Rather, they are interludes meant to showcase the actors. The songs are long, sentimental and often accompanied by extended dance sequences. This is unlike Chicago, whose sexy numbers were dressed as dream sequences; or the recent Rent, where the songs seemed to be extensions of the characters inner thoughts and feelings.

Despite the differences with modern takes on musicals, The Producers is great fun. Broderick and Lane, who are reprising their stage roles, anchor the show with effortless comic timing and an exuberant chemistry.

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