arts & entertainment
Actor comes to
terms with comic
Nazi imagery in
The Producers.
Tony Targan
Special to the Jewish News
W
hen I was cast as the flamboy-
antly gay Carmen Ghia in The
Producers, the Farmington
Players' spring musical running April
29-May 21, I embraced my role. Like the
sporty car (Karmann Ghia) for which my
character is named, Carmen is flashy, high
maintenance and can shift gears — emo-
tionally — on a dime.
I am confident enough in my own mas-
culinity that I have no problem playing the
effeminate Carmen. But I did have one nag-
ging concern: As a Jew, is it wrong for me
to play The Producers with the bitingly
over-the-top "Springtime for Hitler" — for
laughs? Does making fun of Hitler and the
Nazis somehow trivialize the Holocaust?
True, the show has played as part of suc-
cessful national tours at Detroit's Fisher
Theatre, but how will the Farmington
Players' production — with six Jewish
cast members — go over with the local
Jewish community or at my synagogue in
Farmington Hills?
To put these questions in context, you first
need to understand that the show's most
elaborate number, "Springtime for Hitler," is
a play-within-the-play. No one would stage a
Nazi musical for its own merit or to glorify
Hitler. To the contrary, Springtime is sup-
posed to be the worst, most offensive play
ever written — a guaranteed flop.
As movie critic Roger Ebert wrote in
reviewing the 1968 movie version of The
Producers: "To produce a musical named
Springtime for Hitler was of course in the
worst possible taste, as an escaping the-
ater patron observes in the movie — to
the delight of [producers] Bialystock and
Bloom, who were counting on just that
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April 21 a 2011
reaction. To make a movie about such a
musical was also in bad taste, of course.
How did Mel Brooks, the writer and direc-
tor, get away with this? By establishing the
amoral desperation of both key characters
at the outset, and by casting them with
actors you couldn't help liking, even so. Like
Falstaff, Zero Mostel's Max Bialystock is a
man whose hungers are so vast they excuse
his appetites."
Mel Brooks — born Melvin Kaminsky,
Jewish — has said, "You have to laugh at
dictators like Hitler. That's the one thing in
the world they really cannot stand — being
figures of fun."
But Brooks is hardly the first Jew to have
fought fascism by poking fun at Hitler. As
noted last year by Cory Franklin in the
Jerusalem Post, even during World War II,
Hitler parody was prevalent.
He writes: "In 1940, with America still a
neutral in World War II, the Three Stooges
did You Natzy Spy, the first film to satirize
Hitler. Hitler, played by Stooges' leader
Moe Howard (born Moses Horwitz, Jewish)
sprinkled his diatribes liberally with Yiddish.
"A year later, Charlie Chaplin made The
Great Dictator, the classic film satirizing
Hitler (Chaplin was not Jewish although
several of his close family members were).
Chaplin, in a dual role, played an inno-
cent Jewish barber mistaken for Adenoid
Hynkel, a savage caricature of Hitler. Hynkel
is a power mad maniac who dances with
a balloon globe of the world. The film
received worldwide acclaim, and Hitler
reportedly watched it.
"Then, in 1942, Jack Benny (born
Benjamin Kubelsky, Jewish) starred in his
most famous film, To Be or Not to Be, about
an acting troupe outwitting the Nazis in
occupied Poland. It portrays Hitler pranc-
ing around, saying, "Heil, myself." Later in
the war, Looney Tunes, a Warner Brothers
company, headed by Jack Warner (born
Jacob Warner, Jewish), did a cartoon spoof
of Hitler with Daffy Duck conking him on
the head during a party rally."
OK, so mocking Nazis has some his-
torical precedent, but oy vey
this is
suburban Detroit in the heart of the Jewish
community. But, as it turns out, Farmington
Hills is far from the unlikeliest place The
Producers has played.
In fact, in 2009, The Producers had a
successful run in Berlin, Germany. It was
staged at the Admiralspalast, a theater that
Hitler used to attend.
Theater manager Falk Walter said: "If
there's any city in the world where it should
be performed, it's Berlin. For one, this town
was the root of all the evil. And it also hap-
pens to be the most tolerant and exciting
city in Germany"
Even so, a German audience is one thing;
I wondered how Israelis would feel about
the play? If anyone has more reason to
see red" — to have a visceral reaction to
the Nazi symbolism in The Producers a
Jewish audience in Israel would be the ulti-
mate litmus test.
As it turns out, in 2006, The Producers
was a big hit in Tel Aviv.
As Martin Patience wrote for the BBC
News website,"Every night at the Cameri
Theatre, musical-goers pack out the 920-
—
((
—
Jewish cast members in the Farmington
Players' production of The Producers:
left to right, back row, Nicole Jones
(Warren), Ari Kirsch (West Bloomfield),
Gary Weinstein (Farmington Hills) and
Jan Jacobs (Farmington Hills); front row,
Tony Targan (West Bloomfield) and Gary
Feinberg (Farmington Hills).
seat venue to see dancing Fuhrers and
brown-shirts decked out in swastikas. `If
there's one place in the world that has full
license to make fun of Hitler, it's here, says
the Israeli director of the musical, Micah
Levensohn."
While some audience members with a
personal connection to the camps may find
it uncomfortable, showing The Producers
in Tel Aviv shows that Israeli society has
"moved on" since World War II. Theatergoer
Rutz Aknin said, "I think it's important
because it gives you a perspective of life.
Now we can laugh about Hitler and this
makes us stronger. It shows that we're sur-
vivors:'
If audiences in Berlin and Tel Aviv
have enough tolerance and perspective to
accept The Producers in all its frivolous,
equal-opportunity offensiveness, I think
Farmington Hills will do just fine.
So when Carmen offers Bialystock and
Bloom to take their "hats, coats and swasti-
kas," please don't take offense. I
The Producers runs April 29-May 21 at the Farmington Players Barn Theater in
Farmington Hills. For show dates and tickets, call (248) 553-2955 or go to www.
farmingtonplayers.org .
Immediately following the May 15 matinee performance, cast members will
hold a special panel discussion, "Reactions to Nazi Imagery in The Producers."
Panelists include Rabbi Aaron Bergman of Adat Shalom Synagogue in
Farmington Hills and cast member Ari Kirsch, both of whose parents are
concentration camp survivors. Cast member Tony Targan will act as moderator
and field questions and comments from the audience.