‘Producers’ Have Ways Of Making You Laugh

The spoof musical that featured the song “Springtime For Hitler” has made its Berlin debut in a theatre where the former Nazi leader once had a purpose-built box.

German media has speculated whether the city would be ready to laugh at “The Producers,” the Mel Brooks musical that sends up the führer and the Third Reich, but reports suggest the May 14 opening at the Admiralspalast was a huge success.

“Some reviewers are saying the city’s historic theatre, which until recently had a Führer’s Box specifically built for Hitler, is taking a risk by staging a play featuring tap-dancing stormtroopers singing “Watch out Europe we’re going on tour,” said the April 9 edition of Der Spiegel.

“I’ve been trying to get ‘The Producers’ for ages. If there’s any city in the world where it should be performed, it’s Berlin,” Admiralspalast manager Falk Walter told the German weekly.

“Can Berlin laugh at Hitler?” asked local daily Berliner Morgenpost, claiming that that even the artistic director of the current production admitted to “feeling queasy” when he first saw the play himself in New York

Considered the most successful Broadway musical of all time and the winner of a record-breaking 12 Tony Awards, the show tells the story of two New York Jewish chancers who – for accountancy purposes – put the tasteless musical “Springtime For Hitler” together in the hope it will be a flop. It turns out to be a huge hit.

While posters of a knock-kneed Hitler have been plastered around Berlin, the pretzel replaced the swastika on the banners outside the theatre because it’s still illegal to display the Nazi symbol in public.

The 82-year-old Brooks, whose film won the Oscar for best original script in 1968, told Berlin listings magazine Tip that he was shying away from the German premiere, as he had from others in Tel Aviv and Vienna.

“I’d prefer not to go, not least because I would have to fear facing some mentally disturbed sharpshooter who wants to have it out with me for stripping the führer of his honour,” he explained.