Trivia for the day:  In what Broadway hit does Adolph Hitler sing, dance and flirt with the audience?  It’s a no-brainer.  In what else but Mel Brooks’s outlandish show biz musical, The Producers, where that same coy Hitler, who’s called “the German Ethel Merman” and is played by a queen, lives by the credo, “Keep it gay!,” “Heil myself!” is his mantra.

Well, we always knew der fuehrer was pretty far out.

Now in a Diablo Light Opera production in Walnut Creek, The Producers is famously the biggest Tony Award winner in Broadway history. Is it as good as other Broadway biggies, like Kiss Me Kate, How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, or Gypsy?

The point is, it’s in their league, and that makes it very good indeed.  In fact, it’s irresistible, so that despite outrageousness—or maybe because of it—you have to give in.

I grinned pretty much all the way through.

The story is based on Mel Brook’s 1968 movie, and it’s pure Brooks: a cheeky mix of he sophomoric and the sophisticated.  After a series of Broadway stinkers (Funny Boy, a musical version of Hamlet, is one, and The Breaking Wind is another), whirling-dervish producer, Max Bialystock, plots with his nerdy accountant, Leopold Bloom. Who soothes hysterical fits with a comfort-blanket, to strike it rich by mounting a deliberate flop, then fleeing to Rio with the investors’ money?  Those investors are hot-to-trot old ladies, with nicknames like “Squeeze-Me-Please-Me.”  Max gets dough out of them by indulging in sex games like “the rabbi and the contortionist.”

Desperate for a guaranteed flop, he and Leo mount Springtime for Hitler, subtitled, “A Gay Romp at Berchtesgaden,” in which German wins World War II, and the chorus goosesteps in Busby Berkeley swastika designs.  When his “guaranteed flop” turns out to be a big hit, the bratwurst hits the fan.

The DLOC version of The Producers is handsomely mounted, and although it lacks its original big stars, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, it’s sill brightly pleasing.  Ryan Mark Weible directs with verve, Jacob Brent choreographs wittily (my favorite is Leopold and Ulla’s courtship dance), and Andy Scxrimger provides colorful sets that succeed one another with pleasing grace.  Melissa Anne Paterson’s costumes are as good as anything that ever graced an M. G. M. show, and Kurt Landisman’s lighting keeps it all brightly in focus. Conductor Mark Hanson provides brisk musical accompaniment.

Channeling Zero Mostel, Marcus Klinger anchors the production as crazy-shrewd Max Bialystock, while Ryan Drummond makes a wonderfully fresh and goofy Leopold Bloom, who dreams of wearing a producer’s hat one day. As the tasty actress-cum-secretary, Ulla, Ginny Wehrmeister uses her long-legged self to comic-sexy effect. Stephen Foreman thrusts his body all over the place as Carmen Ghia, and as Roger de Bris (and Hitler) Tim Johnson chews the scenery with gay abandon.  Danny Cozart is very funny as helmeted playwright, Franz Liebkind, who performs “Der Guten Tag Hop Klop” and breaks both legs.

Brightly brash, The Producers play at the Dean Lesher Center until March 15, followed by Hello Dolly in June. For tickets and information call 925-943-7469 or visit www.dloc.org.