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Lust! Greed! Nazis! The Producers offends all By RACHEL HODGES STATIC and FEEDBACK Editor Originally, theater was meant for the dregs of society. The Romans said the rabble would stay content if only they were distracted by “bread and circuses,” and those distractions became the first stage productions. So it’s sort of ridiculous, the way theater has become something that only the elite tier of society is supposed to enjoy. In reality, Shakespeare was just a bigot poking fun at the Jewish moneylenders of his day, and the royal advisors were horrified that the Queen liked such low productions. So if you think of it like that, The Producers is really theater the way it was meant to be. The Producers is a loud, bawdy, politically incorrect attack on everything – EVERYTHING – about American society and the Broadway scene. But then, that’s what Mel Brooks must have intended when he adapted his 1968 film sensation for the stage – to |