When The Producers opened its trial run in Chicago, it was well-received, but was not the universally-loved, critic-proof behemoth it was to later become. Chicago Sun-Times theater critic Hedy Weiss was impressed by the show, but was well aware that it was a "buoyant boisterous musical-theater time machine," referring to Mel Brooks's "giddy, childlike, pseudo-naïve irreverence and intentional bad taste" and "the blatant silliness of his old-time jokes and attitudes." Weiss went on to say, "Unapologetically politically incorrect, he has concocted what 50 years ago would have been called 'the tired businessman's show,' with sexpot and all—a pure, simple, self-confidently anachronistic entertainment."

Two months later, the show opened in New York, taking the town by storm. In the New York Times, which has a long-standing tradition of setting the standards for Broadway (and, by extension, for the theater world), Ben Brantley's review from...