ISRAEL: Holocaust survivors find comic relief in gay, super-sized Adolph Hitler.

Record ID: 396173

  • Title: ISRAEL: Holocaust survivors find comic relief in gay, super-sized Adolph Hitler.
  • Date: 15th June 2006
  • Summary: WIDE OF STAGE; AUDIENCE APPLAUDING; ENDING SCENE OF MUSICAL
  • Embargoed: 30th June 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA1KHNVVEGW70TQYN064577OYT8
  • Story Text: A Hebrew-speaking Adolph Hitler performing on an Israeli stage has the potential to ignite a serious uproar in the Jewish state but when an obese, gay version of the Nazi dictator wobbles on stage, the image becomes a comic relief.
    The horrors of the Nazi Holocaust, where six million Jews were killed in World War Two, is rooted in the mere existence of the Jewish state, comprised of several generations of survivors.
    But director of the Israeli version of Mel Brooks' Broadway hit 'The Producers', Micah Lewensohn believes Israel has matured enough to turn images of horror into comedy.
    "I think that Israel is trying to become a normal country. And one thing about being normal is being able, now with the distance of years, to even make fun of Hitler," said Lewensohn ahead of one of the daily theater shows in Tel Aviv.
    Producers of the New York based theatrical say the show is one of the largest theater productions in Israel and tickets for the show in a 920-seat auditorium in Tel Aviv are sold out almost daily.
    Rights holders of the show, the 'Cameri Theatre', say Hebrew is the only foreign language the musical -- played by a cast of 80 Israeli actors and musicians -- has been translated into.
    Israeli actor Itzik Cohen, who plays the part of Hitler, says he portrays a super-size comic version of the German Fuhrer, without mentioning the atrocities he conducted in order to mock the Nazi dictator.
    "It is like seeing an airship Hitler," Cohen said, sitting backstage in his dressing room. "I wanted to be this freaky Hitler, this bitchy Hitler," Cohen added.
    "The only way to win them (dictators) is to mock them" Brooks, a Jewish comedian himself, said in an interview to the Israeli newspaper "Yediot Aharonot" in January 2006.
    The plot of 'The Producers' revolves around a sneaky Broadway producer, Max Bialystock, who has known better days, and his accountant, Leo Bloom, who together plan to stage a musical that would fail in the box-office and make millions by keeping the money invested in the show without sharing the profits with the investors.
    The two chose the most tasteless Nazi musical, featuring appalling actors, with hopes to have a sure flop. But the worst play imaginable turns into a huge hit and the perpetrators end up in jail.
    Brooklyn-born Brooks based the musical on his 1968 low-budget movie "The Producers", which became a classic comedy film and won an Oscar award.
    The musical version first premiered on Broadway in 2001, starring Mathew Broadrik and Nathan Lane.
    The theater show became an immediate hit and crossed oceans to London's West End. The musical production won 12 Tony awards, the highest number of awards given to a production.
    Some 9,000 survivors of the Nazi Holocaust live in the Jewish state and many generations of victims of the Nazis still live in their memories.
    Lewensohn says this population was taken into account when the musical was translated and therefore segments of the Israeli version have been added in an effort not to upset that population.
    "There are many changes that were done as a result of the fact that it is translated and yes, in terms of doing it here, where it is a country that many people are second and third generation survivors," Lewensohn said.
    The adjustments exclude the huge Nazi cross that descends into the stage during one of the scenes, as it is displayed in its Broadway version, and whenever the Jewish producers say the name of Hitler they spit and curse in a familiar Hebrew term "Yimach Shmo", meaning - may his name be wiped off.
    "It is very funny and it is very Jewish," actor Shlomo Bar Abba, who plays the role of Bialystock, said after one of the shows.
    "It is a once in a life time experience," Bar Abba said.
    Producers and actors of the musical, created by one of the greatest creators of comedy, who himself is a Jew, say they could not anticipate the roaring reviews the show received by theatre critics and spectators.
    "If there is one place in the world that has the complete license to make fun of Hitler -- it is probably here," said Lewensohn.
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