‘The Producers’

2046476

Danza versus Hasselhoff. Much like comparing Olivier’s Hamlet to Gielgud’s, you can debate it until closing time but it’s all academic at this point.

Suffice it to say, "The Producers" is more in balance now at Paris Las Vegas. TV veteran Tony Danza puts the marquee name back where it should be, in the starring role, while the stunt-casting of David Hasselhoff in drag for the show’s first three months was a distracting left turn from the collective effort.

Danza’s stab at Max Bialystock isn’t earth-shaking but it’s credible. You don’t get the winking, Bob Hope feel of the in-joke that audiences shared with the Hoff.

And after all his time on "Taxi," Danza is a leading man who understands the dynamics of an ensemble cast. The collective post-Hasselhoff effort spreads the cheer and lets the story unfold as it was intended.

Danza’s singing voice sounded draggy and punished at the performance for media members last week, and low microphone levels didn’t aid his cause. But Max is more a comedic role anyway, and an actor with the right bluster can patter-sing his way through the numbers.

Once the awkward introductory scene gives way to the real setup — the shyster producer meeting up with mousy accountant Leo (Larry Raben) — Danza customizes his version of Max: a New York wise guy who can turn on a smoothie’s charm, more realistic and low-key in his line readings and willing to let Raben run with the deranged zaniness.

For fans who equate Max with the fever pitch of Nathan Lane or Zero Mostel, it may take some getting used to. After all, in Mel Brooks’ world, "Hamlet" has become a musical called "Funny Boy," and when a mincingly gay character says, "Walk this way, please," you’d best clear a path.

But if you walk in cold, the approach does have logic. The 56-year-old Danza is more believably lecherous when he yells out his office window, "That’s it baby! When you got it, flaunt it!" His roguish appeal really could seduce little old ladies into sinking their savings into his Broadway bombs, while the humor usually comes from the character’s asexuality.

Regardless, the spotlight gradually recedes from Danza once Max and Leo pull the trigger on their scheme: Find the world’s worst musical and oversell shares in it, then bury the books after the production folds in one night.

"The Producers" lasted six years to close on Broadway in April, giving the Las Vegas edition the windfall of inheriting Bill Nolte as the Nazi playwright. He has played the role so long that he owns it. His version of the addled doofus balances slapstick with just the right touch of menace.

And veteran song and dance man Lee Roy Reams follows Hasselhoff to play the show’s director as more the old queen Brooks envisioned; one whose boundless self-esteem allows only a few qualms about tackling "Springtime for Hitler," a "gay romp with Adolf and Eva."

Leigh Zimmerman as sexy secretary Ulla suffers the most from the Las Vegas version’s too-tight trim to about 95 minutes. She blows the doors off with her opening number, but then her character essentially disappears, along with the story arc of Leo’s discovering, as Max tells him, "There’s a lot more to you than there is to you."

The reined-in production is more in keeping with Brooks’ original 1968 movie, but the rhythm doesn’t feel right. What would be the second act is packed into 35 minutes, including the curtain call. And why keep the first-act curtain closer when there’s no curtain to close?

And, as noted when the show first opened in February, the songs that move the story along aren’t always as memorable as the cut songs that stuck in the heads of Broadway audiences.

Given the casino-imposed limitations, however, original director Susan Stroman has preserved a quality copy of the show for those who have somehow managed to miss it elsewhere. If it doesn’t endure beyond Danza’s contracted tenure in December, these con men at least had an honest shot at beating the Vegas odds.