Who could have predicted that a musical tribute to Adolf Hitler would ever become a comedy hit on Broadway? Certainly not the two men behind a crafty scheme to stage a surefire flop. But then, who could have known that Mel Brooks would be able to improve on his 1967 film about these producers by reshaping it as a musical, and that it would prove such an eternal hit itself?
Still so original, and delightfully – daringly – funny, it is revived by director Patrick Marber with such vigour, sparkle and controlled wildness that it renders itself the London show of the festival season – funnier, camper and more outre than pantomime, although it pulls back from the full freight of the danger in its political satire.
