A THEATRE producer’s aim to get rich quick by staging the world’s worst musical is told in a show coming to Wantage.

Mel Brooks’ musical The Producers is being staged by the AmEgos amateur theatre group at King Alfred’s Academy Theatre in Portway from Wednesday to Saturday, May 7 to 10.

Based on the film of of the same name, it tells how producer Max Bialystock, once known as the King of Broadway and played by Nick Coard, sees his show Funny Boy, a musical version of Hamlet, close after just one performance.

But the following day, in conversation with his accountant Leo Bloom (Dave Oakes), Max discovers that a producer could actually make more money with a flop than a hit.

He teams up with Leo, who always dreamed of being a theatre producer. Together they look to raise $2m from “little old ladies” to bring the worst play ever written to the Broadway stage, using the worst director and performers in town, and expecting it to close quickly so they can head off to Rio with the cash.

The Producers will be AmEgos’ fourth show since the group was set up in 2012 by mother-and-daughter team, Lesley Phillips and Grace Anderson. They started the company with the aim of staging the play The Rise and Fall of Little Voice and have since gone on to stage two further shows, The Pajama Game and Deathtrap.

Lesley, who is the show’s director, said: “The Producers is quite a challenge for a new group, for a start you need six leading men with great voices. “And then we have to find singing stormtroopers and tap-dancing grannies, not to mention singing pigeons!”

The cast which is drawn from Wantage, Faringdon and surrounding villages also includes Rob Thorpe as the playwright Franz Liebkind and Stephen Rees and Elliot Winskill as the director Rodger De Bris and his assistant Carmen Ghia.

And, as well as choreographing the show, Lesley’s other daughter Lauren Anderson also plays secretary Ulla. The musical director is Michael Dukes.

Lesley added: “Musicals such as this are expensive to produce, but we've been very lucky in securing show sponsorship from The Snooty Mehmaan restaurant and that helps towards the cost of putting on such a show.

“This is a great story with fabulous songs, so do come along and see what happens when Max Bialystock tries to stage the worst musical ever!”

Tickets are £8 for opening night and £10 for the remainder of the run. They are available online at www.wegottickets.com/AmEgos or from The Hare In The Woods in Faringdon or Umami Deli in Wantage.