Posted on 02/22/2006 2:09:19 PM PST by dennisw
Stage farce lets Israelis see funny side of the Fuhrer
Stephen Farrell, Tel Aviv
17feb06
IN a khaki blur of bad taste, SS uniforms and prancing Fuhrers, the Mel Brooks Broadway farce The Producers has come to Israel for the first time.
The show, in Hebrew but replete with swastikas and Nazi salutes, is playing nightly in Tel Aviv to chuckling audiences of Holocaust survivors. Even as they chat during the interval about the best lines, many recall the horror of Kristallnacht.
"If ever there was a place that has full licence to make fun of Hitler, it is probably here," Micah Levensohn, the Israeli director of the musical, said as the Cameri Theatre filled up behind him.
"We don't shy away from the images.
"If you look at Israeli television every night, there are swastikas and Nazi footage on one program or another.
"It's not as if seeing a swastika is a shock for Israelis. The main objective is to make people laugh."
Acutely sensitive to their audience, the creators have tweaked the original script.
The most prominent alteration is that whenever Hitler's name is mentioned, the Jewish characters Bialystock and Bloom do a shtick spit and stamp on the ground in unison, uttering the ancient Hebrew curse yimakh shmo (may his name be erased).
"I was a little bit worried before we put the show on stage," Noam Semel, the manager of the Cameri and one of the creators of the show, said.
"I didn't know what the response would be. We discussed it many, many times. Most of the people here are second- or third-generation Holocaust survivors and, of course, we know that half the audience are, too.
"But, in my opinion, Israeli audiences are much more mature than audiences in America."
His project - delayed for years by a struggle to secure the rights - was rewarded with positive reviews and excellent word of mouth.
The production is sold out until the end of May.
During the interval on Tuesday, Miriam Bobash, 78, a Dresden-born Holocaust survivor, said that she had not told her husband, Benny, about the content of the play beforehand.
"It's fun," she said with a grin. "It actually is very good."
Mr Bobash, 81, was altogether less enthusiastic. He said: "It's not a subject that we should even laugh about. If I had known, I wouldn't have come."
But his view was clearly in the minority. "The biggest fun on earth," said Frances Marcus, 74, who survived the Holocaust in her native Netherlands.
The Times
BTTT
"They lose me right after the bunker scene."
Come and join the Nazi party!
So, after the show they all went out for drinks and a late dinner. As they were leaving the theatre, an old Jewish man with a cane had to be restrained from attacking Brooks...screaming at him about the fact that there was nothing funny about Hitler.
It always surprise me that no one ever notices the negative Jewish steriotypes in Bialystock and Bloom.
It's about time. Pity we can't mock muslims in parody. That's what humor is for. If you can't poke fun at someone, why even breathe? Our comedy is so dull these days. I miss ethnic humor.
Durka durka?
I am not Jewish, but I agree with the old Jewish man.
Hitler was not funny.
Not then.
Not now.
"When der Fuehrer says,
Ve iss der Master Race,
Then ve Heil! Heil! right in der Fuehrer's face."
Still not funny.
Now if there was ever a person in the history of mankind, besides Teddy Kennedy, who absolutely did not have a funny side, it was Adolf Hitler. One must be human to have a funny side.
On the other hand, it's pleasant to think that Hitler, down in hell, is suffering a bit extra because everyone is laughing at him.
Not the sort of thing he would have appreciated.
"Ven Herr Goering says, `Dey'll never bomb dis place!'
Ve heil (pbbbt), heil (pbbbt) right in Herr Goering's face!"
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