One of Penn State’s best known musical theatre groups — the Penn State Thespians — will kick off their latest show, a rendition of the famous Mel Brooks’ Broadway hit known as The Producers, this coming Thursday night in the Schwab Auditorium. The Producers is the humorous story of a theatrical producer, Max Bialystock, and an accountant, Leo Bloom, who decide to make what they hope will be a Broadway flop so that they can run off with investors’ money and bolt to Brazil. Instead, their play turns out to be a huge success, much to their dismay.

Sophomore Johnny Falconi and senior Patrick Kelly will star in the production as Bilaystock and Bloom, respectively. The opening showing is at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday night. There will be a second performance at the same time on Friday night, with a 1 p.m. matinee on Saturday and a 7:30 p.m. performance later that night to close out the Thespians’ most recent production.

Tickets can be purchased online through Ticketmaster, at the door, in the HUB, at the State College Ticket office, or at Eisenhower Auditorium. They will run you $5 with a student ID or $10 for general admission.

I had a chance to catch up with the director of the show, Mike Dodds, who suggests that everyone come out and see the show, whether or not you’re a fan of musical theatre. “The Producers is a show that I got into into before I was ever really into musicals at all,” he said. “It’s a show that appeals to people whether or not they’re an avid theatre fan. There are aspects of it that appeal to everybody no matter how experienced they are with musical theatre.”

Dodds called The Producers a “good stepping stone” for those that want to test the waters of musical theatre. He added that the Thespians are putting a version of the play that is pretty true to the original Mel Brooks’ Broadway rendition, but they have a few snippets that make it unique. Unfortunately, he couldn’t tell me what those are, so you’ll have to make it to one of the Thespians’ four showings of The Producers to find out for yourself.