What could possibly go right?

Rating: 8/10 (20 June 2006)

Max Bialystok (Zero Mostel), a producer of musicals who has lost his knack and is living on his illusions, gets some odd tax advice from his accountant Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder): that although the IRS audits successful plays with a fine tooth comb, it ignores flops. Bialystok, who can no longer succeed in producing successful musical comedies, gets the inspiration to produce the worst musical ever, oversell the production to little old ladies willing to make investments in his plays after he seduces them, keep the investment, and have the money that he still needs for his self esteem. Bloom, until then a thoroughly-repressed and neurotic accountant, agrees and becomes a partner.
Of course everything must fail. The music must be awful, the plot must stink, the set design must be dreadful, and the story must be offensive. So he finds the worst director, the worst choreographer to create incompetent dance scenes, the worst set designer to create a tasteless set, the worst performers possible, and above all the worst stage play available. And the worst stage play ever written is the incredibly tasteless "Springtime for Hitler", penned by an unrepentant nazi (Kenneth Mars) as a romp in the Third Reich for the 'lovable' clique of Hitler, Goering, Goebbels, and all the other sordid characters that "Franz Liebkind", the nutty Nazi, loves to the time.
But Bialystok and Bloom, both obviously Jewish, have to 'seduce' the crazy nazi into believing that they have empathy with Liebkind's desire to express his love for the Fuehrer and his cause, even to the point of wearing swastika armbands that they despise in his presence.
The casting for a "Hitler" finds a hippie-like actor who can't hold a tune or even make sense. The play, above all, is to have its premiere in New York City, a place where one would expect an audience only slightly less sympathetic to Nazis than Tel Aviv.
Bialystok tries to offend the critics by offering a small bribe small enough to insult the critic. The play opens with anticlimax with stale music, bad lyrics, and an incompetent dance scene. Some dancers have tasteless headdresses (including a beer stein and a pretzel). The introductory dance scene incorporates the goose step and in the end a salute with artillery.
Nothing could be a more certain failure -- but it SUCCEEDS! Then the comedy soars, with incredible consequences that result in big trouble for people that we have every cause to loathe.
For more, see this romp of a comedy of unintended consequences for Bialystok, Bloom, and Liebkind.