'The Producers,' a Cultural Milestone for Germany

PASSAU, Germany, May 18, 2009— -- Germans had a "heil" of a time at the Berlin debut of "Springtime for Hitler," a play that observers feared would produce gasps, rather than laughs.

Sixty-four years after the end of World War II, Hitler has returned to the Berlin theater Admiralspalast, where he once had his own booth on the first floor.

This time, however, he's onstage himself, singing "Heil Myself," with hips swinging and eyelashes fluttering in the first German-language version of the Broadway hit "The Producers," which premiered in Berlin Sunday night.

The theater, the first to dare putting a satire about Hitler on the stage in Berlin, is breaking new ground by playing the first production of Mel Brooks' musical.

Brook's musical is based on his 1968 film of the same name. Broadway producer Max Bialystock and his partner, Leo Bloom, come up with a foolproof plan. They want to get rich quick by putting on the biggest flop Broadway has ever seen, so it will close immediately and they can split town with the investors money. They decide on "Springtime for Hitler," written by the fictional Franz Liebkind, a Nazi fan.

Their plot however, does not unfold as planned, because in the end their sure-to-fail musical turns out to become a big hit and all hell breaks loose.

Ahead of last night's premiere, some German critics had been wondering whether it was appropriate to stage a play about Hitler in Berlin, the former capital of Nazi Germany and to laugh or joke about a Nazi-related matter was largely considered taboo in the country where the Holocaust began.

"Can we laugh about Hitler? Should we laugh about Hitler? Must we laugh about Hitler?" asked daily tabloid Bild Zeitung

Well, who said the German sense of humor is not a laughing matter?

It turns out the Berliners laughed, and for most part they loved the play, too.

Today's Berlin papers report that the audience at Friday's opening night for previews responded enthusiastically to the sight of a step-dancing