Springtime for Nazi humor (Mel Brooks and "The Producers")
The Broadway Maven (David Benkof) interprets Broadway
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Shalom!
This week, the Broadway Maven Looks at Mel Brooks and Roy Lichtenstein:
• The Wednesday, February 17 "History of Mel Brooks Part One - and Two” class from 8 pm to 10 pm ET looks at the nonagenarian Jewish funnyman’s lifetime of creative output: his television work, films (especially his triumphs The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein) and both his musical comedies (The Producers and Young Frankenstein).
• Thursday, February 18’s “Roy Lichtenstein 101” class at Noon ET explores the paintings of the Pop Art pioneer, especially his images drawn from romance and war comic books. Famous for his Ben Day dots mimicking low-end printing, Lichtenstein helped tease out the ways high and low culture are different - and the same.
• My YouTube channel contains one Mel Brooks and two different Roy Lichtenstein videos.
• This Weekly Blast looks at the question of using Nazis for laughs; RANTS about how the final moments of the extraordinary Come From Away hurt the show’s own well-deserved impact; and links to two YouTube GEMS: a 13-minute “Crash Course” on Broadway book musicals and my own video explaining Roy Lichtenstein’s well-known but perplexing painting “Step-On Can With Leg.”
Since we’ll be discussing The Producers in the Mel Brooks class on Wednesday, I thought I’d raise again one of the two most recurring disputes in my classes (the other is racial casting): Is it OK to laugh at Nazis?
A highlight of the 1967 movie, of course, is the production number “Springtime for Hitler” (see above), an over-the-top extravaganza that would warm the heart of any black/white/red-blooded Teutonic show tune queen.
But is it OK for us to laugh at Nazis? The question can be rather nuanced and even “meta.”
For example, the class on MAD Magazine looked at the parody above of Hogan’s Heroes, which is set in a German POW camp during World War Two. Initial reactions included the idea that all such humor is in poor taste; or that some is OK and even welcome, but this particular cartoon, with its mentions of “GASSERS” and “SHOWERS” went way over the line. THAT argument suggested one COULD laugh at Nazis but not at the Holocaust (which, incidentally, is Mel Brooks’s oft-stated position).
But this case is rather more subtle. The cartoon LAMPOONS the TV program, parodying the show’s idea that Nazis can be funny. The references to gas chambers are thus a warning that Nazi humor inevitably dances toward dangerous territory. So if you don’t like Nazi humor, you might actually like this cartoon!
Sign up for Wednesday’s Mel Brooks class here and Thursday’s Roy Lichtenstein class here. If you’re coming to the Mel Brooks class, you might watch the following video to prepare:
Come From Away is not only an emotionally wrenching show to watch, its content is nearly sacred: the miraculous rescue of thousands of stranded international passengers by a small but generous Canadian town in the scary days that followed 9/11.
So each of the times I have seen it on Broadway, I wanted to walk out of the theater holding on to the stir in my stomach when Claude, the narrator of sorts echoes his comments from the show’s start: “On the northeast tip of North America, on an island called Newfoundland, there’s an airport. And next to it is a town called Gander. Tonight we honor what was lost, but we also commemorate what we found.”
I get choked up just writing it.
So why does the show end with some dancing violinists etc. doing a little jig (see photo)? Let us exit in dumbfounded silence. People can leave Aladdin and Book of Mormon feeling happy. I want to leave Come From Away feeling drained (but purged). Is that too much to ask?
We already knew times were bad, but this 7-minute report last week from PBS NewsHour showed the impact of Broadway’s closure both on the economy and theater-dependent workers from actors and dancers to people who affix beads to costumes (pretty cool to watch, actually). And it talks about the ways industry leaders are focusing on, in its own words, “sustaining the people and the work they do that make up this great American industry, so there will be an industry to return to.”
Not an upper, but worth watching.
Come on, is it really art? A common complaint about Roy Lichtenstein’s paintings is that they are not serious enough for museum walls. This video I made last year demonstrates in light of one particular household-object painting that Pop Art - and Lichtenstein in particular - can be profound.
Want to simplify things and gain access to great extra content? A $59 First Semester 2021 All-Access Pass gets you admission to all classes free or paid, including those that are full, plus the Weekly Blast and admission to exclusive bonus monthly classes. Tentatively planned all-new bonus classes include “The Wizard of Oz,” “MORE Sondheim’s Lyrics,” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” Passes only on sale through March 31. Register: bitly.com/BenkofFirst
NOTE: As of this week, all course information is available at TheBroadwayMaven.com.
One-minute video introduction to the course (please share widely!)
David Benkof’s YouTube channel
Next Eight Classes:
I urge students who want FREE tickets to the five-part March Seminar to sign up NOW. Already, there are no March 1 tickets left for A Chorus Line, and there are 250 or fewer FREE tickets for each of the other four classes. Once they are gone, students will have to sign up for Thursday’s Greatest Hits class ($2 for all five classes) or an ALL-ACCESS Pass ($59), which gives automatic admission to everything through June.
Wednesday, February 17 Mel Brooks parts one AND two (8 to 10 pm ET)
Thursday, February 18 Roy Lichtenstein (Noon ET)
Tuesday, February 23 The Wizard of Oz (Noon ET, ALL-ACCESS Passholders ONLY)
Thursday, February 25 Schoolhouse Rock (Noon ET)
Monday, March 1 A Chorus Line (Noon and 8 pm ET); repeated Thursday 8 pm
Thursday, March 4 Simon & Garfunkel (Noon ET, sign-ups soon)
Thursday, March 4 A Chorus Line (8 pm ET Greatest Hits)
Monday, March 8 Mary Poppins (with special guests) (Noon and 8 pm ET); repeated Thursday 8 pm
-David Benkof, The Broadway Maven
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