Christopher Gray is glad to welcome back an extravaganza of bad taste numbers

The Producers carries the sub-title A Mel Brooks Musical, as well it might since the wise-cracking New Yorker is, in terms of the writing, almost its only begetter.

He shares a co-credit with Thomas Meehan on the book – which, of course, is based on Brooks’s 1968 film of the same name – and has solo honours for both words and music of the many marvellous songs.

The original movie, it may be remembered, was not a conspicuous success, except for a cult audience.

It was Brooks’s first and perhaps a little ahead of its time in poking fun at Hitler, and much else. That Brooks was to become the US’s principal purveyor of bad taste in hugely entertaining form – think Blazing Saddles – lay some way ahead.

The tale focuses on wheeler-dealer stage producer Max Bialystock, superbly played (as he was when The Producers last visited Milton Keynes eight years ago) by New Yorker Cory English.

He is a fast-talking shyster who defines the showbiz spiv. He is also an bad showman, with a string of flops to his hard-to-pronounce name. We meet him first in the aftermath of the disaster that is his Funny Boy, a new musical based on Hamlet.

Not long after, we meet down-trodden accountant Leo Bloom, gloomily going about his daily chores in a soulless office until deciding I Wanna Be A Producer.

This transformation scene is one of the most brilliantly handled here under director Matthew White, with doors of the cupboards and filing cabinets of Paul Farnsworth’s versatile set flung wide to emit pink-tutued, high-kicking chorus girls.

Jason Manford, a winning Bloom, is in wonderful voice, with a light tenor surprising in its warm tones, He’s a fine actor too.

By this time, Leo has already impressed his prospective partner with his insight that, because of the vagaries of the tax system, the best way to make money in the theatre is with a copper-bottomed flop.

The perfect vehicle is found in Springtime For Hitler, from the pen of Nazi Frank Liebekind, a splendid comic turn for Phill Jupitus. For director, who can improve on the ultra-gay Roger De Bris (David Bedella), who appears in a glorious silver dress and tiara on his way to a fancy dress ball as a Russian princess.

His companion in campery is his twirling, lisping assistant, Carmen Ghia, a perfect vehicle from the comic (and dancing) talents of the great Louis Spence.

Adding the finishing touch to the comic confection in the main roles is a Swedish vamp with an even more difficult name than Max’s (it’s agreed to call her simply Ulla). Her mangling of language, as performed by Tiffany Graves, and her solo, When You Got it Flaunt It, are hugely enjoyable.

Nothing can rival the vulgarity of Springtime, with De Bris’s leering Hitler flanked by stormtroopers and dancing girls in odd headdresses.

The show visits Oxford in June, Don’t miss.

The Producers
Milton Keynes Theatre
Until Saturday
Booking: 08448 717652
Coming to New Theatre, Oxford, June 29-July 4
Tickets: 01865 320760 or atgtickets.com/venues/new-theatre-oxford/