Mel Brooks talks at a Friday news conference at Paris Las Vegas. Photo by John Locher.

Some outrageous con schemes pay off. Others are less endearing.

Putting David Hasselhoff into "The Producers" was inspired lunacy worthy of the title's own plot. It makes absolutely no sense, but you can't pull your eyes away.

Hasselhoff isn't doing great gay shtick as inept stage director Roger DeBris, and we really don't care. We laugh at the mere sight of him, the fact that he's game to do it. It's all about being in on the joke and in his corner.

Witness the 6-foot-6 icon of TV kitsch in drag, towering over Larry Raben's Leo Bloom character in a full-court press -- "You mean that smell is you?" -- threatening to absorb him like some giant single-celled amoeba. It's a one-of-a-kind sight gag, just the thing to bring new interest to a title that's showing signs of wearing out its welcome.

The other idea worthy of Max Bialystock, the show's shifty main character, was to chop this Las Vegas edition of Mel Brooks' hit "The Producers" down to 90 minutes. That one's not so lovable.

The issue is admittedly one of perspective, which can shift. If the Paris Las Vegas version is your first time to see the show, the second half may not feel as much like you're hitting "forward" on your DVD remote.

One of a critic's basic commandments is to review the show you saw, not the one you remember or the one in your head. But in the past six years, the Broadway smash has become so familiar (a few people even caught the 2005 movie adaptation) that it's hard to deny the obvious: Important parts are missing.

Admittedly, the full-length Broadway version tends to ramble in places. No one really misses, say, the rooftop stomp ("Der Guten Tag Hop Clop") of Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind (Fred Appelgate).

But there must be a happy medium in here somewhere. Taming the show into something that more resembles Brooks' original 1968 movie brings out a problem. The songs that serve as detours are often better than the ones that move the story along.

The conniving producers' lament "Where Did We Go Right?" or Bialystock's 11th hour crisis, "Betrayed," created a direct bond with an audience. To deny them is to deny a unique charm of live theater. Having invested the time and ticket price for these characters to win you over, you want quality time with them. And you want the best songs.

The new version maybe tries too hard to protect the farcical, now-familiar plot. Faded producer Max (Brad Oscar) and his timid accountant Leo come up with the scheme to produce "Springtime for Hitler" -- "A gay romp with Adolf and Eva in Berchtesgaden" -- a musical so atrocious it will "close on Page 4," burying the books that would show the producers far oversold shares in the production to Max's harem of little-old-lady investors.

Oscar's bald head flushes purple and Raben's eyebrows are virtual Gene Wilder -- the original movie Leo -- as blustering Max and mousy Leo jump to the manic demands of Brooks' dirty jokes and vaudevillian comedy. You can almost see the spit in the air. This far past the original, lightning-in-a-bottle pairing of Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, the play comes off almost like a revival of a title from the '50s; "The Front Page" or "Guys and Dolls," maybe, with their likeable scoundrels.

But even this fasttracked version takes time to fully get the audience in the groove. Hasselhoff's late appearance is the definitive turning point, perhaps a sign that the comedy does indeed need that extra boost of star power. The biggest loss comes with the curtailed role of the dynamic Leigh Zimmerman as sexy secretary Ulla.

Zimmerman's introduction, "When You Got It, Flaunt It," is now her only time in the spotlight. The whole romantic subplot, where she converts Leo from boy-child to grown man, is now whittled to a suggestion, and so is the sweetness that balanced the broad comedy.

But unlike the musical within the musical, this version of "The Producers" isn't a one-night, pass or fail proposition. If it turns out that audiences want their songs back? Or want more Leo and Ulla?

Well, you get the idea that beyond all other things, this is a show that aims to please.