The production values in Matunuck have been consistently fine this season, from the simple revue Ain’t Misbehavin’ through the high-energy George M! to the elegant Evita. In 1967, former publicist Tommy Brent saved the barn theater from demolition, but his shows often were not fully polished. When Fourquest Entertainment took over in 1988, quality improved for 15 seasons, but not when productions relied heavily on dancing; dividing profits among three producers limited those more expensive shows. The doors closed in 2003. But last year the place was bought by Bill Hanney, owner of a Massachusetts cinema chain, and a late-summer production of A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum showed that all was safely in hand. Hanney set up the theater as a non-profit, which increased revenue sources beyond tickets and has allowed increased budgets for productions. This season has seen no lack of talented toe-tapping and proficient chorus lines.
If The Producers is the new standard for future seasons, Theater by the Sea surviving another 75 years is not a far-fetched ambition.
Related:
Musical man, Trying to fail, Control freaks, More 
- Musical man
When holographic projection technology gets perfected, you can be sure that Mel Brooks’s The Producers will be one of the first holograms released.
- Trying to fail
Brooks draws absurdities of both the theater and New York City with both mischief and affection, and MSMT’s production is impishly, lovingly true to that spirit.
- Control freaks
Back in the ’60s, those crafty cranks Mel Brooks and Buck Henry spun the red-scare spook biz into a sit-com full of wit and absurdity featuring rival agencies KAOS and Control.
- Review: Year One
Mel Brooks and the lads from Monty Python stormed through this territory with fierce farce. Here there's little farce, just a fusillade of flaccid dick jokes.
- Staging send-ups
I’m happy to report that a number of other summer productions will be sending up various cultural phenomena.
- Both new and old classics
The Gamm certainly has come a long way in the quarter-century leading up to this its 25th anniversary season. The evolution of its name alone is quite a trip.
- The ultimate PILOT movie
Whether in the world of commercial airlines, the Air Force, or a futuristic world of intergalactic smuggling, those who fly planes for a living have long been well-represented in the cinema.
- Play by Play: February 6, 2009
A compilation of theater productions in and around Boston
- Swing Vote
Some clever scenes lay bare the excesses of campaign TV culture, but overall the humor is as lame as anything on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour .
- Dirty politics
The last resort of the true patriot is a fart joke.
- BeloJo celebrates Black History Month
Is it just Phillipe & Jorge, but something seemed patently wrong, if not offensive, when the Urinal ran a headline on the top of its February 20 Vo Dilun section that read: “Black lawyer named to judicial panel.”
- Less
Topics:
Theater
, Entertainment, Adolf Hitler, THE PRODUCERS, More
, Entertainment, Adolf Hitler, THE PRODUCERS, Nazi Party, Performing Arts, Matthew Broderick, Musicals, Theater, Broadway Shows, Mel Brooks, Less
