For posterity, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick reprise their roles in the Broadway musical, together with Gary Beach and Roger Bart, while Uma Thurman (with a funny SVEE-dish accent) appropriates the cheesecake, and Will Ferrell goose-steps into the part of the playwright of Springtime for Hitler, "A New Neo-Nazi Musical." (Director and choreographer Susan Stroman, too, reprises her offstage roles.) At first the actors might seem to be still projecting for live theater, but their energy eventually, or intermittently, pulls you in. The musical version reminds you of what was good about Mel Brooks's 1968 original (a bit less of a musical, but a bit of a musical all the same), and there is enough newness in it to keep it interesting: a chorus line of tap-dancing blue-haired old ladies on walkers (well, their walkers tap-dance at any rate), a delightful pas-de-deux between Broderick and Thurman, and more. The action is advisedly set in the Fifties (although some of the flaming gayness feels later), and its vaudeville roots remain brazenly exposed. (2005) — Duncan Shepherd
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