03/09/2025
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๐ฝ๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐ถ๐ฐ ๐ฟ๐ผ๐น๐ฒ
29.08.2025
When Andy Nyman was offered the iconic role of Max Bialystock in The Producers, there was one major obstacle he faced . . . Mel Brooks.
The multi-award winning musical was performed at Menier Chocolate Factory, London, from the end of last year, but has now been transferred to the West End โ being staged at Londonโs Garrick Theatre from tomorrow to February 21.
Leicester-born Andyโs involvement started when he received a phone call from Menier producer David Babani while he was in New York with his family, asking if he was free from October 2024.
โThe last time he asked me that was for Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof,โ Andy said.
โI told him there was something in the offing, but asked why. And he said, โWell, we would love you to play Max in The Producers with Patrick Marber directing.
โMyself and Patrick had almost worked together a couple of times. I was set to be doing Leopoldstadt in Toronto, and then potentially New York.
โSo I did a weekโs rehearsals on that, and then Covid killed it. So weโve known each other for quite a few years.
โBut the biggest thrill was, unbeknown to me, they had already gone to Mel Brooks because when theyโd got permission to stage the show, Mel had approval on casting.
โDavid and Patrick had said to Mel, โThereโs only one person we think can play it, and itโs this gentleman here. He did Tevye for usโ.
โThey sent him a video archive of Fiddler and told him to watch just five minutes to see what he thought.โ
Andy continued: โHe came back to them, and heโd watched the whole show. And he said to them, โOh my god, heโs like Zero Mostel. Yes, yes, yesโ.
โWhen you grow up as a Jewish kid watching Mel Brooks with your parents, idolising him, that is one of the great moments that Iโll cherish forever.โ
While he has yet to meet the comedy legend, Andy is hoping that 99-year-old Mel is able to travel to London to see the show at the Garrick.
โWeโve had messages from him. Heโs seen videos of the show and loves it, so thatโs very exciting,โ Andy said.
The Producers started life as a film in 1967, telling the story of theatre producer Max Bialystock, who is inadvertently told by wimpy accountant Leo Bloom that he would make more money by having a flop.
They search for the most offensive musical they can find, eventually discovering Springtime for Hi**er: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden, written by ex-Nazi soldier Franz Liebkind.
The film and subsequent musical, both written by Brooks, include the showpiece bad taste song Springtime for Hi**er done as a huge dance number with showgirls and plenty of swastikas.
Performing such iconic characters like Tevye and Max Bialystock can be daunting, especially as people compare each performers. Zero Mostel had played both characters, although Topol is considered the ultimate Fiddler.
Nathan Lane also earned accolades for his take on Bialystock.
โItโs a giant question,โ Andy said. โYou cannot be better than that. Theyโre the iconic versions.
โWhy even worry? Why bother? Theyโve won, if itโs a competition, let it go.
โAnd itโs the best way to do it, because Iโm not interested in what they did. I can no more do it the way they do it than they could do it the way I do it because what they bring to it is the human beings they are, and what I bring to it is the human being I am, and my life experiences, and my thinking and expectations and needs, and thatโs the only way to do it.โ
He added: โFor Tevye, if you boil it down, at that point in my life, I was married for the same amount of time he was, I have two kids, you think about how you are with your kids, you think how you are in your marriage, and you bring that, and you make that who you are.
โAnd with Max, youโre looking at a man who has had giant success, and itโs all gone from him.
โHeโs a man in probably his late-60s. Iโm younger than that, but Iโm not a million miles off that, and Iโve had some great successes, and some giant failures. What do the failures feel like, and how does it feel?
โThe thing with this business is itโs wonderful at the moment, Iโm doing great and, thank God, Iโve been doing great for quite a long time. But as of next May, Iโm out of work.
โAnd you can kid yourself, โBut youโre playing Max, thereโll be loads of things that come alongโ, or โYouโve got that film coming out, thereโll be loads of stuffโ. Business doesnโt work like that.
โThe business is the business is the business. I know many people who have huge successes and then donโt work for two years.
โAnd thatโs all Max is. Max is every single one of us whoโs done alright, and then itโs gone away. And then youโre thinking, how am I going to get that back?โ
The Producers is the third show of 59-year-old Andyโs that has started at the Menier Chocolate Factory before transferring.
He said: โWhatโs extraordinary about the Menier is that for that little space, that theatre has produced shows that have smashed the West End, smashed Broadway, theyโve won so many Oliviers, so many Tonys.
โThere is a magic to that theatre, that building, that is unquantifiable.โ
Andy was nominated for an Olivier Award for his performance as Tevye, which opened at the Menier before transferring to the Playhouse.
Obviously, the Garrick has a bigger stage than the Menier so The Producersโ numbers like Springtime for Hi**er can be even more lavish.
But Andy said the staging has not changed massively because โyou donโt want to betray what made it so good. Bear in mind, this is the first new production of The Producers for 20 years.
โThat original production has just been carbon copied again and again and again. Thatโs the way itโs worked. And this is the first time Mel has allowed a brand new take on it.
โIt does feel brand new, it doesnโt feel like the version that was. So it stays the same, and itโs a sort of stripped back version.
โThereโs obviously more space to play with, so the numbers are a bit bigger than they were, and some of the staging has changed, but the show is fundamentally the same, although you are going to see big dance numbers.โ
When he originally signed up, there was no talk of a West End transfer.
โBut if youโve got any seichel (intelligence), and youโve been in the business for a long time, you know if theyโre doing a brand new production of The Producers at the Menier, and Patrickโs directing it, and Tony Award winner Scott Pask is designing it, and theyโve brought him over from New York, and theyโve brought New York choreographer Lorin Lattaro over, they want this to work.
โSo, yes, I knew, in inverted commas, the aim was for it to go to the West End. But thereโs a world of difference between that and it transferring. I never, ever take any of it for granted.
โAnd if, when youโre doing it at the Menier, all youโre thinking about is, โOh, I hope this goes to the West End, youโre missing the joy of doing it there.
โIโve been doing this nearly 40 years. One of the things Iโve really learned is youโve just got to enjoy the moment now.โ
While waiting for news of the transfer, Andy managed to squeeze in a few jobs.
โIf Iโd have got an offer for a long-running TV series, Iโd have had to think about what do I want to do?,โ he said. โAs it happens, in the three to four months, I did a feature film and some TV.
โBut I would have hedged my bets and just waited for The Producers.โ
Sadly, in June, Andyโs wife, Sophie Abbott, died after a long battle with cancer.
In The Producers, playing opposite Andy is Marc Antolin as Leo Bloom, the innocent accountant who falls under Bialystockโs spell.
โI didnโt know Marc before this,โ Andy said. โEverybody who knew him said, โOh, youโll love him, heโs lovely, the menschโ.
โOf course, thatโs the kiss of death because you always think, what if I donโt love him? What if Iโm the one who thinks heโs not a mensch?
โBut he is a dream to work with. Not only is he incredibly talented, he is the nicest, sweetest, most generous, lovely man and we just adore working together. Thereโs no ego.
โWe are crying with laughter every day. We cannot wait to get back out there and start hearing the laughs from the audience again.โ
When Andy speaks you hear how in awe of Mel Brooks he is.
He told me: โHe uses laughter as a weapon. Kindness as a weapon. Itโs fantastic. When the film came out, youโre talking just over 20 years after the end of the Second World War.
โSurvivors of the camps were potentially going to see that film. And families of people who fled to New York seeing that film, and families of people who have just lived through the horrors of the war.
โThe script won the best original screenplay Oscar, so when you look at that bravery of his writing to say we can laugh at the far right, itโs the first time that was actually done like that. It was an act of Jewish healing.โ
He continued: โThen when the show opened in 2001 on Broadway, the world was a very different place.
โThe world was opulent and stable, and okay, and it was just this giant, glitzy, glamourous, most lauded Broadway production ever, won more Tonys than any other Broadway show.
โBut now itโs a very different world, where the far right around the world is, I donโt know about on the rise, but certainly stronger than itโs been for a very long time.
โThe worldโs politically in disarray, Jewish identity is in disarray. Many people donโt know what theyโre allowed to laugh at anymore with gender identity and politics, you have to be so cautious about what you do or say. And here comes this satire that doesnโt give a s***. And itโs absolutely amazing.
โGet it in front of an audience, and it feels more essential, more dangerous and funnier. Itโs like a breath of fresh air.
โIt feels absolutely joyous and rebellious in the best Mel Brooksian way, so itโs a thrill to do it.โ
To do full credit to Andyโs body of work would take much more than the space available here, but he also has writing credits โ books and plays โ as well as working extensively with mentalist Derren Brown, with whom he won an Olivier Award.
An accomplished magician, he co-created Brownโs controversial shows Russian Roulette, Seance and Messiah.
โRussian Roulette was pretty much as extreme as you can get,โ he laughed. โThat was pretty amazing.โ
Last year, Andy starred opposite Imelda Staunton in the multi-award winning revival of Hello Dolly.
Among his recent film credits is Judy, for which Renee Zelwegger won the best actress Oscar.
Amusingly, his Wikipedia page, sums up his personal life โ much to his bemusement โ as โNyman is Jewish and attended Jewish summer campโ.
โI grew up in Leicester, there was the shul and there was Maccabi,โ he explained, adding that the Wikipedia entry had nothing to do with him.
โSo I went to Maccabi, and then to Chai summer school in 1981, where I met Jeremy Dyson.
โHeโs my writing partner and best friend.โ
Last year, Andy and Leeds-born Jeremy โ who made his name with The League of Gentlemen โ published the book The Warlock Effect.
The pair also co-created horror stage-play Ghost Stories, which was nominated for two Oliviers and adapted into a film.
Itโs all a long way from Andyโs early years when he watched Jaws at the cinema in 1975 and decided he would be an actor.
He explained: โI saw Richard Dreyfuss, and I thought, yeah, a little curly-haired Jewish fellow with glasses, and there I was, a little curly-haired Jewish kid with glasses.
โThatโs why representation is so important in things because I saw myself up there and realised, I donโt have to look like Paul Newman or Robert Redford. I could look like me, and be in films, and act.โ
He told me he was a confident child, but added: โItโs a wily thing, confidence, because there are lots of things Iโm very confident in, and then other things I still feel like an imposter.
โI feel like an imposter every time I walk into a rehearsal room.
โBut the confidence comes from just thinking, oh, f*** it. Whatโs the worst that can happen? But yeah, terrible imposter syndrome.
โIโve always sung. Iโve loved it, always loved it, and then, you know, as a family, me and my wife and my kids, always sang musicals around the house, and we love it.
โThe first proper musical I did was Jamie Lloydโs Assassins at Menier, 11 years ago now.
โI did a couple of musicals when I left drama school, but there wasnโt much onus on solos and stuff. This was a real step up.
โSo, again, itโs that thing where you think, I donโt read music, everyone around me reads music, everyoneโs trained to sing, Iโm not, what the hell am I doing here? But you just have to bite the bullet and do it.โ
Andyโs parents Ivan and Phyllis were highly supportive of his career choice, although โthey were worried itโs so precarious, which I understand now as I look at my kids, who are both in showbusiness.
โBut they loved, as any understanding, kind parent would do, that their child had got something that made them happy and they were pursuing it. What more can you ask for?โ
Andy added that he neither encouraged nor discouraged his children Macy and Preston to enter the profession.
โWhy would I discourage them? Iโve had the most amazing adventure,โ he said.
โBut we didnโt encourage them either. I mean, it was just โwhatever you want to do, if you want to do it, great.
โIf you donโt, great. Just find something that makes you happyโ.โ
Andy and Preston were both in the recent Disney+ production about the man who hid Anne Frank, A Small Light, although they didnโt share any scenes.
With Andy having to head off to The Producersโ sitzprobe โ where the cast rehearse with the orchestra for the first time โ there was just time to discuss his latest collaboration with Jeremy Dyson, the play The Psychic โ which runs at York Theatre Royal from April 29-May 23.
โItโs so exciting. Itโs a stage thriller about a psychic called Sheila Gold who loses ยฃ500,000 in a court case that brandishes her as charlatan publicly.
โAnd a very wealthy couple come to her who have lost their child. They tell Sheila, โIf we can do a seance with you and make contact with our daughter that will bring us such peace, moneyโs no object.
โYou have to prove itโs her. She has to answer this question that only she would know.
โBut if she can do that, and you can prove itโs our daughter, and thatโll bring us peace, weโll give you the half a million quid youโve just lostโ.
โThatโs the premise of the play, and there are twists and turns, big laughs, big shocks . . . we canโt wait to do it.โ
Theproducersmusical.com
