Nazi spoof 'The Producers' set for German opening

The Producers, Mel Brooks’ bad taste musical which sends up the Nazi regime and famously features the song Springtime For Hitler, is set to open in Germany.

A German theatre company has expressed a keen interest in staging the hit Broadway show.

A group of German theatregoers are being flown to New York next month to see the musical.

If they do not walk out in disgust – or even manage to laugh at a chorus line of goose-stepping Nazi stormtroopers – it will get the go-ahead to open in Berlin.

The musical is a stage version of Brooks’ Oscar-winning 1968 film and centres on has-been producer Max Bialystock and accountant Leo Bloom, who set out to make a fortune by creating the world’s worst musical.

They come up with Springtime For Hitler, a concept so tasteless it should be a sure-fire flop.

The Producers has been Broadway’s biggest success story of recent years, winning an unprecedented 12 Tony Awards since it opened at the St James Theatre in 2001 with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in the starring roles.

Speaking about the approach from the German theatre company, Brooks said: “I said to them, why don’t you get 25 Germans of disparate age and bring them to the St James Theatre. See if it works out – if they are upset, or if they are young enough to roll with the punches and themselves make fun of the Nazi regime.

“If they like it, and say ‘this will go down nicely’, then we’ll do it.

“They will decide whether or not this is just too unspeakably rude for the Germans.”

He added: “Some Germans seem to like the film but they’re kids, they’re young and smart. Anyone over 60 might have an axe to grind.”

Brooks said the production would only open in Berlin because the city was more “sophisticated” than the rest of Germany.

And he joked: “I’ve asked the Germans to come next month. They are being assembled in Berlin.

"They’ll be coming through the Lowlands – they usually do. It’s probably best to tell Holland and Belgium that the Germans are coming.”

Susan Stroman, who is directing and choreographing the musical, said: “The Germans have asked for it many times. Negotiations are under way. They have come to us and seem to want to do it.

“It would certainly be talked about. I think everybody is worried about offending people. We want to get people laughing, we don’t want to offend anybody.”