h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Great pics. It's a little disturbing how everyone looks so comfortable in their Nazi uniforms, though.

It's a creepy show all round. The Nazis knew how to design cool uniforms, that's for sure.

At the end of the first act (the reprise of Tomorrow Belongs To Me) the whole company does the nazi salute, and two large swastika flags unfurl on either side of the proscenium arch. Several people said afterwards that, even though it was the end of the act, they didn't feel they could applaud that.

And before we opened, when they had just painted the swastikas, they had to leave them hanging up during the day so they could dry, during which time the hall was hired out for some function or other - goodness knows what those people thought we did there - they probably thought we were some kind of neo-nazi organisation.

I've just realised two of my favourite movies have Nazis in them - "Cabaret" and the "Blues Brothers". But whereas in Cabaret they're nasty Nazis, in BB they're the object of ridicule. Now there's the dilemma - do we ridicule their memory as we might think they deserve, or should we portray the brutality of the regime "lest we forget?" Maybe your director could consider a comic element to soften the shock of the Nuremberg Rally? Just musing really...

The difference being that the Cabaret Nazis were the real thing, but the BB nazis were sad, pathetic wannabees, rightly the object of ridicule. I don't think the actual Nazi regime was in the least bit ridiculous. Horrifying, repugnant, reprehensible, abhorrent yes - ridiculous, no.

No, I'm not saying the real Nazis were ridiculous. They were everything you say and more, and one continues to be amazed by the barbarities that are uncovered by time. But don't forget that even at the height of the 2nd World War, people were ridiculing them in songs that helped to build morale, or the famous footage cut to the tune of "Doing the Lambeth Walk", for example. Humour's a good medicine to help you deal with the cold hard reality. And, erm... another favourite movie of mine was on recently: "The Producers" with the marvellous "Springtime for Hitler"... or what about the Italian movie "Life is Beautiful", where humour allows the hero to endure the horrors of a concentration camp?