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Hitler in Hebrew plays to big crowds in Israel

TEL AVIV - Springtime for Hitler - in Tel Aviv?

Bringing The Producers to Israel might seem like just another plot twist to Mel Brooks Broadway musical about getting rich off a surefire theatrical flop. But it's for real, in Hebrew, and playing to packed houses.

And in a country where the Holocaust is an abiding trauma, swastika armbands, Nazi helmets and the signature song Springtime for Hitler are going down as smoothly as they did in Brooks original 1968 movie, the musical he opened on Broadway in 2001 and the 2005 movie version of the musical.

The production, which premiered Jan. 26 at the 920-seat Kameri Theater, is a huge hit. But it was never a sure thing. "Nobody really knew how this would be received in Israel," said Dan Almagor, who translated the show into Hebrew. "We were sure there would be protests, people saying, "How can you show such a thing in Tel Aviv?' "

The Producers is about a Broadway impresario, Max Bialystock, who has fallen on hard times. One day an accountant, Leo Bloom, is doing Bialystock's books when he remarks that in certain circumstances, a crooked producer could make more money with a flop than with a hit, simply by raising much more money than he needs for the production, and then, after the inevitable failure of the show, absconding with the leftover cash.

So the two pick a paean to Hitler written by an unrepentant Nazi living in New York City and stage it on Broadway as a musical. But far from failing, it is so exuberantly and hilariously tasteless that it becomes a hit and the perpetrators end up in jail.

On a recent night at the Kameri, the audience whooped, roared and applauded.

The response is in sharp contrast to the uproar that follows concert performances of the music of Hitler's favorite composer, the anti-Semitic Richard Wagner, and Almagor thinks the reaction to The Producers suggests "a certain maturity of Israeli audiences."

Time has worked its way, he said. "Today, our best friend in Europe is Germany."

[Last modified February 1, 2006, 01:04:14]