Young Frank's a Broadway Flub

(NEWSER) - The Broadway hit musical comedy The Producers finally opened in Berlin to boffo box office receipts—but not before in intense sales push to break through German reluctance to see an ersatz Hitler hamming it up on stage, reports the Los Angeles Times. "If you put it on most places, then it's a jolly musical about friendship and trust," said producer Falk Walter. "If you put it on in Berlin, Hitler is the dominant theme." More»

'The Producers' inspires uneasy laughs with its German debut

(NEWSER) - The Producers has goose-stepped its way onto a German stage 76 years after the springtime when Hitler took power, the New York Times reports. There were plenty of laughs—if sometimes uneasy ones—on opening night Sunday, but the Nazi-mocking musical and its swastika-laden ads prompted a fresh round of soul-searching in the press over Germany's past. More»

Actor will star opposite Nathan Lane in Godot

(NEWSER) - Unlike millions of Americans, John Goodman hated Dan Conner, the beleaguered husband he famously played on Roseanne. “It’s one of those arrogant things that happen to you when you don’t realize the breaks you’re catching,” Goodman tells the New York Times. But the portly actor has moved on, and is readying his first onstage part since 2005—starring opposite Nathan Lane in a Broadway revival of Waiting for Godot. More»

(NEWSER) - This could be awkward. Mel Brooks’ The Producers has been a smash around the world, but will the Hitler-mocking musical play in Germany? The Admiralspalast theater in Berlin—which the real Führer once frequented—is betting Germans are ready to laugh at the blood-soaked past, the Daily Mail reports. “If there’s anywhere in the world where it should be performed, it’s Berlin,” says the Admiralspalast’s director. More»

"The Philanthropist" opens next April

(AP) - Matthew Broderick will return to Broadway next spring in a revival of "The Philanthropist," a comedy by English playwright Christopher Hampton. Broderick, in his first Broadway appearance since the 2005 revival of "The Odd Couple," portrays Philip, an insular college professor. Directed by David Grindley, the Roundabout Theatre Company production will open April 26, 2009. More»