“I have done Shakespeare, Ben Elton, and several musicals, but I have never done ANYTHING like this before,” Edward Blagrove exclaimed. Edward is directing Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan’s spoof showbiz musical The Producers for Oxford Operatic Society. The show, a long-running Broadway and West End hit, tells the story of Max Bialystock, a Broadway producer who needs a cast iron, guaranteed flop, a giant turkey that preferably closes the same night as it opens. For, his timid accountant tells him, a dud show can earn you more than a hit – if you get the tax fiddle right.

Bialystock finds the show. The very title is enough to put you off: Springtime for Hitler. To make doubly sure that all will not go well, he hires the worst director he can find, Roger DeBris. “It’s a great part,” comedian and actor Russ Abbot told me with evident relish when he played Roger on tour a couple of years ago. “He’s a screaming queen, and all the people around him pamper to his every whim. I’ve met temperamental directors like him in the past!”

Oxford Operatic’s Producers is not, however, going to be an exact copy of the professional production.

“What we’re doing is bringing our fresh take to it,” Edward Blagrove explained. “But that doesn’t mean we are changing for change’s sake. Oxford Operatic is a big company, while the show itself is designed for a company of only 25 members. We double that, so I would definitely say the biggest challenge I have faced is creating effective roles for everyone. We have added extra dancers to some scenes, and expanded other roles. The show feels like it should have a massive cast now, which is something I am very proud of.”

The Producers is at the New Theatre, Oxford, from May 19-21. Tickets: www.NewTheatreOxford.org.uk or 0844 847 1588.