The Producers/Headscratchers

• Exactly why would anyone willingly go see a musical advertised as a Neo-Nazi musical? The only reason this troper can think of is that season tickets were already booked for some people.
  • There might be a potential audience, but I was left wondering why they only started protesting after the show began. The title was rather direct, and you'd think that, at the very least, it wouldn't be a surprise to them.
    • They assumed no-one living could actually make a positive play about Hitler, so they assumed it would be just a Word Salad Title. Given the state of Broadway show titles both then and now, its not that hard an assumption.
    • Judging by the opening number "Opening Night" in the musical/movie musical, a lot of theatre patrons got their amusement from watching shows fail. "Springtime for Hitler" would be the ultimate failure in theory.
    • In some countries the film itself was titled "Springtime for Hitler" and people still went to see it before hearing what it was actually about, so Truth in Television.
    • Also, they might have been expecting it to be what it unintentionally turned out to be (an over the top parody/sendup of Nazism).
    • This troper just assumed that the opening night crowd consisted of critics.
    • Plus, in the old days (when the original was made) people would go to the opening night of anything. Possibly in case it did, in fact, end up a hit, so they could say "I knew it!", possibly 'cause the opening night is just so glamorous... The fact that people don't do that anymore is the least of the remake's problems. The audience could also have assumed it was a serious, negative historical play about the "springtime" period of the Third Reich, that is, when it seemed they would really win.
  • After taking over at the last second due to Franz's broken leg, Roger ruins "Springtime For Hitler" in Franz's mind due to his dishonorable portrayal of Hitler. Yet in the song, all the backup dancers and singers are responding to and accompanying Roger's antics like nothing's out of the ordinary. So how big a change actually did happen because Roger plays Hitler instead of Franz?
    • Possibly quite big, as mood in a prewritten play can be flipped on its head by simply how you say the lines.
    • I'm guessing most of the choreography would've remained the same, except if Franz had stayed, Hitler would've been played much more seriously and not quite so gay.
• What the hell was going on behind the sofa in the "That Face" number if Leo and Ulla waited until marriage to have sex? Dry-humping? Rule of Funny is the most obvious solution, but give me your best shot.
  • Necking, groping, tonsil hockey, tongue wrestling, motorboating, hickey-ing...
• Innuendo
• Who was willing to work on that play?

---

Back to The Producers