Reactions to Susan Stroman’s The Producers appear to be sharply divided at the very least, and that’s not just another way of saying the reactions are “mixed.” The movie has a lot of fans. A guy who attended last Thursday’s research screening wrote that “even though my entire group (myself plus three friends, all of whom see a fair number of flicks) despised The Producers, there were those in the audience who were clearly having a good time. They were clapping after every song. But for me, all the zip and brains of Mel Brooks’ original 1968 movie have been sucked out in favor of sight gags, ugly cliches and awful song-and-dance sequences. Susan Stroman, the director, proves herself completely incapable of creating a movie that doesn’t look like she dropped a camera in the center aisle at the St. James and went to sleep.”