Auditions

THE PRODUCERS AUDITION INFORMATION

 

AUDITION REQUIREMENTS

  • Open auditions will be held on Monday, May 26 and Tuesday, May 27 at starting at 7pm. Doors to the theatre will open at 6:30pm. Auditions will take place at the Little Theatre of Virginia Beach.
  • Audition forms can be filled out at ltvb.com You will be able to post your head shot and resume there, also. You may bring a copy of your resume and headshot with you, if you so desire
  • Auditionees will consist of two parts – cold readings and vocal auditions. For the cold readings, sides will be provided at the audition.
  • For singing auditions, please prepare a song in the style of the show, not more than 32 bars long. Bring a digital backing track as an option in case an accompanist cannot be provided for sheet music.
  • Dance auditions and call backs will be held on Wednesday, May 28 at 7pm. Please wear comfortable clothing and bring your tap shoes as well as a pair of hard-soled shoes or jazz shoes.
  • Casting will be color-blind. The production staff will be looking for the performer (as they see it) who best exemplifies the character. This production welcomes auditionees who are 15 years or older at the time of audition.

VIDEO AUDITIONS Video auditions will not be accepted. Only in-person auditionees will be considered for roles in the show.

SCHEDULE REQUIREMENTS

  • The commitment for this production requires performers to be available five times per week -Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.
  • Rehearsals will be from 7-10 on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Saturday rehearsals will be from 10a-4p with a 45 minute break for lunch.
  • While the schedule will be designed to ensure performers are only called when required, there is an expectation that performers can commit themselves fully to the process.
  • Preference will be given to those auditionees with the fewest conflicts.

Performances: July 17 – August 10, 2025 Fridays and Saturdays 8pm, Sundays 2:30pm. Pride Night – Thursday, August 7 at 7:30pm. Call time is usually one and half hours prior to performance.

Accents:  The show is set in 1950s America.  All the characters speak with American accents (some with NY Irish) except Ulla who is Swedish and Franz who speaks with a broad German accent.

Performance style:  The tone of the show is broad comedy/farce.  Though at all times the performers must retain believability in their characters, the comedy arises from archetypal characters drawn with broad brush strokes in extreme situations in which they often react in heightened ways.  Physical comedy skills and verbal dexterity are required of performers.

 

 

CHARACTER OUTLINES

Lead Characters

MAX BIALYSTOCK: (playing age 50s). TENOR (A2 – F#4)  A failed Broadway producer. Good singer with excellent physical and verbal comedy skills.  Ruthless, unprincipled and quick witted with verbal banter.  He will stop at absolutely nothing to succeed.  A likeable rogue who, despite his egotistical persona and indefensible antics, has the audience secretly rooting for him.

LEO BLOOM: (playing age mid 30s). TENOR (A2 – F4) A meek-mannered accountant.  Good singer with excellent physical and verbal comedy skills.  Movement/dance ability advantageous (including tap).  Leo is neurotic, unassertive and utterly lovable.  He discovers his inner confidence, follows his dream of becoming a Producer, and ‘gets the girl’ by running off to Rio with the leading lady.

ULLA: (playing age 20s) MEZZO (A3 – G5) The knock-out Swedish secretary.  Excellent comedienne with great song and dance skills.  Gorgeous, young, blond and leggy.  Enthusiastic, innocent and adorable with a very loose grasp of the English language. She is generally utterly inept in her work.

Main Characters

FRANZ LIEBKIND: (playing age late 20s+)  BARITONE (F2 – G4) A wild-eyed German immigrant and Nazi fanatic.  Excellent comedy skills with ability to sing.  A strong physical presence, he is hot-tempered, intensely obsessive Nazi supporter (with a soft spot for his pet pigeons).  More than slightly nuts, he eventually loses the plot and attempts to shoot our main characters in a comic fit of rage.

ROGER DE BRIS: (playing age 30s+)  BARITONE (G#2 – G4) A cross-dressing, renowned (in his own eyes) Broadway director.  Excellent comedy skills and good singing and dance ability.  Tap skills advantageous.  Beneath a (somewhat) convincing straight-acting persona lies a full-blown Judy Garland waiting to burst out.  When opportunity gives him the leading role in ‘Springtime for Hitler’ he becomes a ‘gay as a daisy’, all singing all-dancing showbiz Hitler.

CARMEN GHIA: (playing age 30s +)  TENOR (C3 – A4) Roger’s possessive live-in lover.  Excellent comedy skills and good singer.  Thin, ‘strange looking’ and intense queen.  He overreacts to every eventuality and is mortally wounded by any of Roger’s thoughtless remarks.  Comically sibilant beyond all measure.

ENSEMBLE

The Ensemble plays a crucial role within the Producers, required to fill in the many varying characters that inhabit almost every scene. From theatregoers and Showgirls to old women and Stormtroopers. The role of the ensemble will be extensive and exciting. There are 50 “characters” in the show, and all but 6 of them will be played by the Ensemble.

Being part of the ensemble of The Producers will require energy, stamina and the ability to change between a myriad of characters throughout the show.

Vocally, the production team is looking for the 1930’s/40’s/50’s Hollywood sound. Not the 90’s musical theatre. Chorus members will need to be able to hold a harmony part up to 5-part division each for both women and men.

Minor Roles

We are planning on casting the following roles from the ensemble once the first phase of casting is complete:

Mr. Marks:  Short-tempered, cigar chomping, little tyrant of an office manager.

Roger’s creative team: Scott – TENOR choreographer, Bryan – TENOR set designer, Kevin – BARITONE costume designer – all of them as camp as Christmas apart from Shirley Markowitz – ALTO the lesbian lighting designer who out-butches them all.

Little Old Ladies: ‘Hold-me-touch-me” “Lick-me-bite-me” etc.  They’re little old ladies.  They’re sex crazed.  What else can you say?

Auditionees:  Jason -TENOR (mousy singer from “No No Nietzsche”), Donald (“Little Wooden Boy”), Jack (a G&S devotee)

Usherettes – will need 2 of them

Storm Trooper (TENOR soloist in “Springtime for Hitler”)

Police (all with thick New York Irish accents):  Sergeant; O’Rourke; O’Riley; O’Houllihan (who is also black)

Judge, Prison trustee

 

SYNOPSIS

Based on the 1968 film, Mel Brooks’s musical The Producers is a laugh-out-loud, outrageous, crowd-pleasing farce that has been a smash hit since its 2001 debut. Fading Broadway producer Max Bialystock is desperate to get to the top of his profession again, and he finds an unlikely ally in mousy accountant Leo Bloom, who hypothesizes that one could make far more money with a flop of a show than with a hit. Together, the two set out to produce the worst musical ever to hit Broadway, with the worst script, the worst director, and the worst cast they can find; the catch is that they will raise two million dollars to finance the show, and they plan to take the money and head to Rio when the show inevitably closes after just one performance. Too bad for Bialystock & Bloom that, against all odds, the show is a total hit! With dozens of big and bit parts alike, no shortage of showstopping musical numbers, and Brooks’ signature humor keeping audiences in stitches, The Producers is definitely far from a flop.

 

Email sign-up