The Producers

Glossary and Notes

Characters

• Max Bialystock is named for Białystok, a city in eastern Poland. It was founded in the 15th century, and was part of Lithuania, but Poland and Lithuania were united at the time. It passed to Prussia in the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, but Napoleon gave it to Russia in 1807. Beginning in the 19th century, it became a center of the textile industry and grew rapidly. By the 1890s and up to World War II it had a large Jewish population, at times over 60%. After World War I, it again became part of Poland. It was in the part of Poland that went to the Soviet Union in the secret Molotov-Ribbentrop pact that divided Poland between Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union. But after the Germans invaded the Soviet Union it came under German control. The Nazis pursued a ruthless policy of pillage and removal of all non-Germans, but especially Jews.
  • A Bialy (short for Bialystoker Kuchen) is a kind of roll similar to a Bagel, which originated with the Jews of Białystok Unlike a bagel, it is not boiled, but simply baked.
• Leo Bloom is named for the main character in James Joyce’s Ulysses: Leopold Bloom. (Leopold Bloom is the son of a Hungarian Jew who emigrates to Dublin; his mother, though, is Protestant, and Leopold assumes her religion, at least nominally.) The majority of the story, Bloom’s “Odyssey,” takes place in Dublin on a single day, June 16, 1904. Joyce aficionados mark every June 16 as Bloomsday. (June 16 is also my birthday, but in another year.)
• Ulla Inga Hansen Benson Yonsen Tallen-Hallen Svaden-Swanson -- the name makes fun of Swedish names, although Hansen would be Danish. 
• Roger de Bris—the name is probably from debris, meaning stuff remaining after a battle or such, but Bris is the Askenazic and Yiddish pronunciation of the Hebrew word B’rith, meaning “covenant.” Thus B’nai B’rith, the Jewish service organization, means “sons of the covenant". However, the word bris is also short for the bris milah (Askenazic; the Sephardic is b’rit milah), the ceremony of marking a boy (or man) as a son of the covenant; i.e., circumcision; normally done on the eighth day after birth. (Leviticus 12:3)
• Carmen Giya is an alternate spelling of Karmann Ghia the car made by Volkswagen from 1955 to 1974. At one time it was the most imported car to the United States. It was replaced by the Volkswagen Scirocco. (The Scirocco was sold from 1974 to 1992, in two versions, and again from 2008 on.)
• Franz Liebkind—Liebkind is German for “love child” (a euphemism for “bastard”).

Songs

Opening Night

• schlock: something cheap, shoddy, or inferior (perhaps from Yiddish shlak 'a stroke', related to German Schlag) {OED}

The King of Broadway

• The Ritz is a hotel founded by Swiss hotelier César Ritz noted for its ostentatious display.
• Summer stock refers to theater generally presented in the summer using stock scenery and costumes. Most summer stock theater was in the northeast United States. It employed mostly young actors, some just out of high school, and it was considered a medium for aspiring actors to get their start.
• Theater in the round, or arena theater, refers to a theater space where the audience surrounds the stage, usually with a minimum of set pieces. The actors have their backs to part of the audience all the time. But (the idea is) everyone gets a good seat. An example is the Glendale Centre Theatre. A variation is the thrust stage, where there is a back wall, and the audience sits on three sides of the stage. An example is the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Theater in the Square would be a variation of "theater in the round"; however, there are theaters where nobody has a good seat!
• Florenz "Flo" Ziegfeld (1867-1932) was a Broadway impresario best known for his annual Ziegfeld Follies from1907 to 1931.
• schmoozer: The word schmooze is from a Yiddish word of Hebrew origin, meaning to talk casually, especially in order to gain an advantage or make a social connection.
• Boris Tomaschevsky, an alternate spelling of Boris Thomashefsky (1868-1939), was a Ukrainian-born Jewish singer and actor who emigrated to America where he became one of the biggest stars in Yiddish theater. He was born in Tarashcha (Yiddish:Tarasche), a shtetl near Kiev, Ukraine, he emigrated to the U.S. at the age of 12 in 1881. A year later, barely a teenager, he was largely responsible for the first performance of Yiddish theatre in New York City and has been credited as the pioneer of Borscht Belt entertainment. His son Ted changed his last name to Thomas, partly to avoid being known only as the son of the "great Tomaschevsky". Ted’s son is the conductor Michael Tilson Thomas.
• Champagne is, strictly speaking, a kind of sparking wine from the Champagne region of France, made according to traditional methods, including secondary fermentation in the bottle it is sold in; the second fermentation is on the lees, and  only three grape varieties are permitted: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. Sparkling wines from other regions of France bear the appellation crémant. The French had a provision inserted into the Treaty of Versailles requiring that no other wine bear the name champagne.  But, because the United States is not a party to the Versailles Treaty, many California vintners have labeled their sparking wines "California Champagne".  However, because the reputation of many California sparkling wines have gained their own reputation, they have ceased using that appellation, but have included the description "traditional method", or "méthode traditionnelle", or "méthode champenoise" (although the last terminology used outside the Champagne region is restricted).  Currently, I think only Korbel still uses the name "California Champagne" for a sparking wine made in the traditional method.
• plethora: from Late Latin, but ultimately from Greek, means excess or abundance.

We Can Do It

• Lewis and Clark were U. S. Army officers who led a scientific exploration of the Louisiana purchase, reaching the Pacific coast at Astoria, Oregon, and returning, all overland.
• New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa guide, Tenzing Norgay, in 1953, became the first men known to reach the summit of Mt Everest.
• shnook (sometimes spelled schnook): an easily imposed-upon or cheated person, a pitifully meek person, a particularly gullible person, a cute or mischievous person or child (perhaps from Yiddish שנוק shnuk 'snout'; cf. Northern German Schnucke 'sheep') {OED}

I Wanna Be a Producer

• Sardi’s is a restaurant in New York’s theater district at 234 West 44th Street. Known for the hundreds of caricatures of show-business celebrities that adorn its walls, Sardi’s opened at its current location in 1927. Originally they located at 146 West 44th Street in 1921, but were forced to move in 1927. Business dropped off, so Sardi made a deal with a Russian refugee named Alex Gard to do caricatures of celebrities. Business picked up, and Sardi’s became a hot spot for theater-goers, both before and after the show. The restaurant was frequently mentioned in the newspaper columns of Walter Winchell, among others, which also heightened its popularity.
• The producer’s or director’s casting couch is legendary: females are often not auditioned on stage, but on the couch.
• Winchell’s column: Walter Winchell (1897-1972) was an actor, writer, and radio personality, who is usually credited with inventing the gossip column. Eventually he settled at the New York Daily Mirror and was syndicated in over 2200 newspapers. He used to meet regularly for lunch with other writers, including Heywood Broun, at Sardi’s, where they were known as the Cheese Club. He had a Sunday night radio broadcast where he was regularly heard by 20 million people.He opened his broadcasts with "Good evening Mr. and Mrs. America, from border to border and coast to coast and all the ships at sea. Let’s go to press", or sometimes with some variation. He was one of the first commentators to denounce Hitler and pro-Nazi organizations in the United States, and after World War II he vociferously denounced communism. A dispute with Jack Paar essentially ended his career, but he narrated The Untouchables TV series from 1959-1964. 
• Berchtesgaden is a town in the Bavarian Alps about 20 miles south of Salzburg (which is in Austria) and 120 miles south of Munich (the Bavarian capital). The Nazis had a retreat here. (An interesting fact of geography is that, although Berchtesgaden is in Germany, if you travel north, south, east, or west, you will soon cross the border into Austria!)
• Eva Braun was Hitler’s companion from about 1936, and they were married in 1945, the day before the Red Army captured their neighborhood in Berlin and they both committed suicide.

In Old Bavaria

• Most American stereotypes of Germany are actually stereotypes of Bavaria: lederhosen, beer gardens, &c.

Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop

• Eins! Zwei! Drei! = One! Two! Three!
• Guten Tag = Good Day
• Ach, du Lieber = O you, lovely (often just an expression)
• und = and
• essen = eat
• fressen = eat like an animal (The English cognate is the word fret, which used to have the same meaning as fressen).
• tanzen und trinken = dance and drink
• mein lieber Schatz = my dear treasure
• Schnapps, or in German, Schnaps, is a clear alcoholic liquid, 64 proof, that in French would be known as eau de vie (literally, "water of life"). It is distilled from fermented fruit juices with no added sugar. American schnapps, by contrast, is a liqueur.
• plotz: to burst, as from strong emotion (from Yiddish פּלאַצן platsn 'crack', cf. German platzen = burst) {OED}

Keep It Gay

• In the 1953 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Me and Juliet, there is a song "Keep it Gay", of which this song is clearly a parody. Gay clearly has two meanings in this song!
• The Third Reich is a name commonly used for Hitler’s regime in Germany, 1933-1945, being seen as a successor to the medieval Holy Roman Empire (962-1806), the "First Reich", and Bismarck's German empire (1871-1918), the "Second Reich". During the time of the Nazis Germany had two official names: Deutsches Reich, until 1943, the name of the country since 1871, through the empire (1871-1918), the Weimar Republic (1919-1945), and the nazis; and Großdeutsches Reich, "Greater German Reich", 1943-1945. Because the nazi regime was a continuation of Bismarck’s Germany, and the Weimar Republic (Hitler found it completely unnecessary to repudiate the Weimar constitution), it really was a continuation of the Second Reich.
• A litany is a prayer, usually alternated between a leader (usually a priest or deacon or other minister) and the congregation. By extension, it means a long list.
• Oedipus is the protagonist in the tragedy Oedipus the King  ('Οιδιπους Τυραννος: Oedipus Rex or Oedipus Tyrannos; BC 427) by Sophocles (BC early 5th century to 406; Greek: Σοφοκλης) was the second, chronologically, of the three great Greek tragedians (the other two being Aeschylus and Euripides). 
• Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear are three of Shakespeare’s four great tragedies (the other being the Scottish play, by custom, not mentioned by name inside a theater).
• Johan August Strindberg (1849–1912) was a Swedish playwright and writer. He is perhaps the father of modern Swedish theater. His works include The Red Room (1879), The Father (1887), Miss Julie (1888), Inferno (1897), To Damascus (1898), A Dream Play (1902), and The Ghost Sonata (1908). With Henrik Ibsen and Eugene O’Neill, he is one of the originators of realism in theater.
• Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) was a Norwegian playwright, perhaps the father of modern Norwegian theater. His best known works include Peer Gynt (1867), A Doll’s House (Et Dukkehjem) (1879), Ghosts (Gengangere) (1881), An Enemy of the People (En Folkefiende) (1882), The Wild Duck (Vildanden) (1884), and Hedda Gabler (1890).
• Storm troopers is the usual English translation of Sturmabteilung or S.A., a paramilitary group organized from street toughs and beer hall brawlers in the 1920s to bring the Nazis and Hitler to power. They were also known as brownshirts, from the color of their uniforms. By 1933, the year Hitler became chancellor, they numbered nearly 3 million. The regular army (Reichswehr) was limited to 100,000 men by the Treaty of Versailles, and was afraid that it would be replaced by, or absorbed by the S.A. The leader of the S.A. lobbied Hitler to have the S.A. replace the Reichswehr. But President Hindenburg threatened to impose martial law unless Hitler acted against the S.A. In an event known as the Night of the Long Knives (June 30-July 2, 1934), Hitler had the leaders of the S.A. executed. The S.A. was effectively replaced by the Schutzstaffel (S.S.) which originally had been formed from the S.A. The S.A. continued to exist until 1945, but its only significant action after 1934 was (with the S.S.) Kristallnacht, when SS and SA units were activated to riot against Jews, destroying Jewish businesses and synagogues.
• The conga line is a dance form introduced to the United States from Cuba in the 1920s and 30s, primarily by Desi Arnaz. Its ultimate origins are thought to be from the Congo region of Africa. It is easy to learn: a dancer simply imitates the steps of the one in front of him in the line. The meter is always 4/4: the rhythm goes something like Dat-dat-Dat-dat-DOT-DAH, with the last DAH a kick slightly ahead of the last beat. Warner Brothers used conga lines in many of their cartoons of the 1940s.

When You Got It, Flaunt It

• The words flaunt and flout are frequently confused. In other words, "when you got it, flaunt it"; but if you don’t, flout it.
• wirtue: Ulla is confusing "w" and "v". There is no "w" sound in Swedish, so Swedes regularly substitute "v". But sometimes they hyper-correct, and substitute "w" for "v". 
• The G-string is the lowest of the strings on the violin (the others are D, A, and E). It also refers to a type of thong underwear.

Along Came Bialy

• The Argentine (usually pronounced so that the last syllable rhymes with "dine") = Argentina
• Brilliantine (usually pronounced BRILL-yən-TEEN): an oily, perfumed hair dressing used to make hair glossy
• Listerine is a brand of antiseptic mouthwash. Despite its medicine-y taste, it is one of the most popular mouthwashes.
• A nymphomaniac is someone who (supposedly) cannot control his/her sexual appetite.

Haben Sie gehört das Deutsche Band?

• Haben Sie gehört das Deutsche Band? = Have you heard the German band?
  • In German, the word Band is more likely to mean "group" or "rubber band" or "frequency band" in English; the usual German word for (musical) band is Kapelle (pronounced the same as "Cappella").
• mit = with
• schweigen = keep silent, or "shut up!"
• Reigen = round, round dance, roundel, or roundelay
• schönen = beautiful
• schützen (verb) = shelter, shield, or guard; or Schützen (noun) = shuttle
• schmützen: is this a German word?
• Sauerbraten = braised beef, cooked in something acidic (sauer = sour)
• The term huns was first used to describe the German army by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1900 when they departed to put down the Boxer Rebellion in China. The term was picked up in the rest of Europe, and was used against them especially by the British and French as hordes that had no regard for Western civilization.

Springtime for Hitler

• The Rhineland (Rheinland in German) is that part of Germany West of the Rhine, including the bridgeheads on the East bank. By the Treaty of Versailles, the Rhineland was demilitarized. Hitler’s first significant challenge to the Versailles treaty was to send German troops into the Rhineland in 1936 to remilitarize it. At the time, the French could easily have stopped it, and Hitler had given orders to turn back if the French made any such move, but because of French political instability, they did nothing.
• Düsseldorf is one of the leading cities of Germany. It is the capital of the Land (state) of North Rhine-Westphalia, and is the central city of the Rhine-Ruhr industrial region. Napoleon made it the capital of the Grand Duchy of Berg, of which he appointed brother-in-law Joachim Murat as Grand Duke. When Murat was transferred to the Kingdom of Naples, he appointed his infant nephew. At the Congress of Vienna, the whole Rhineland, including Düsseldorf was assigned to Prussia. After World War II, Prussia was broken up into other states.
• The goose step is a kind of marching step, where the legs are kept straight and brought up to nearly a right angle to the body. It was introduced in the 19th century in the Prussian army, but was reserved for special occasions. The Nazis made use of it, but curtailed it after the fall of France in 1940 and no longer taught to inductees. It is still used in the Polish, Russian, and other armies. But it is easily caricatured, and is frequently used to make fun of Nazis.
• U boats (< Untersee Boot) are what we call submarines.
• The Reichstag was the lower house of the German parliament from 1866-1942. The word is literally translated "diet of the realm", and is often used to refer to the building in Berlin where the Reichstag met, from 1894 to 1933, when it was severely damaged by a fire. From 1866 to 1919 the Reichstag had very little actual power, and was called the greatest debating society in Europe. Under the Weimar Republic, 1919-1933, it functioned as an actual parliamentary body. But when the building burned on February 27, 1933, the Nazis used it as a pretext to curtail most civil rights. After German reunification, when it was decided to return the capital to Berlin, the building was rebuilt, 1991 to 1999, and the Bundestag began meeting there.
• Under various theories of "Social Darwinism" of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many societies considered themselves the master race. But Hitler turned it into a quasi religion.
• Brautwurst is a misspelling: it should be Bratwurst, which is a sausage made from finely chopped meat (That’s what the brat part means), usually pork, veal, or beef. (The German word Braut means "bride".)
• Go into your dance is the title of a song with lyric by Al Dubin and music by Harry Warren, written for the 1935 movie of the same name. The film also included the songs "About a Quarter to Nine" and "She’s a Latin from Manhattan". "Go Into Your Dance" was later incorporated with other Warren/Dubin songs in the 1980 stage version of 42nd Street.

Heil Myself

• Kraut is short for Sauerkraut, a German kind of pickled cabbage, related to the Korean form: kimchi. But kraut is also a slang term used by Americans to mean a German.
• Führer literally means "leader". It was the title taken by Hitler after the death of President Hindenberg in 1934, when Hitler combined the office of President and Chancellor as Führer und Kunstler (leader and chancellor). He took the title after Mussolini, who had styled himself Il Duce, "the leader".
• Ethel Merman (1908-1984) was an American actress and singer, well known for her powerful voice.

Betrayed

• Cain and Abel are the first two sons of Adam and Eve, as told in the biblical book of Genesis, chapter 4. Cain murders Abel, and is driven away.
• The story of Samson and Delilah is told in Judges 16:3-31. Samson marries the Philistine woman Delilah who betrays him to the Philistines. So the name Delilah has come to mean a dangerous temptress. John Milton personified her as the misguided and foolish but sympathetic temptress, much like his view of Eve, in his 1671 work Samson Agonistes. By the time of Camille Saint-Saens’ Samson et Dalila (1877) Delilah had become the eponym of a "Delilah", a treacherous and cunning femme fatale. See the article on Delilah in Wikipedia.
• hoosegow = a slang term for "jail", from Spanish juzgao, variant of standard Spanish juzgado. Alteration of pronunciation and spelling by law of Hobson-Jobson.
• Iago is the antagonist in Shakespeare’s Othello.
• Shul = synagogue, from the Yiddish word שול (shul), from the German word for school, Schule. Both the English school and the German Schule are from  Latin schola, from Ancient Greek σχολειον (scholeion), from σχολή (scholē), (“spare time, leisure”), later  (“conversations and the knowledge gained through them during free time; the places where these conversations took place”).

Pris’ners of Love

• Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison in the Village of Ossining, Town of Ossining, Westchester County, New York. It is located approximately 30 miles north of New York City on the banks of the Hudson River. Ossining’s original name, Sing Sing, came from the Sinck Sinck Indian tribe from whom the land was purchased in 1685. Sing Sing houses approximately 1,700 prisoners. There are plans to convert the original 1825 cell block into a museum. In New York criminal slang, to be "sent up the river" means to be sent to Sing Sing.
• Tote that bail: s/b "tote that bale", referring to a bale of cotton, a reference to Show Boat.
• great white way = Broadway; originally the "gay white way".

Other words

• shtup: vulgar slang, to have intercourse (from Yiddish שטופּ "shtoop" 'push,' 'poke,' or 'intercourse') {OED}
  • In this play, Bloom refuses Ulla’s advances until they are married, or as one Jewish young lady put it: "No chuppah, no shtuppa". (A chuppah is the canopy over a Jewish couple during their marriage ceremony, from Hebrew חוּפָּה.)
• The Iceman Cometh is a play by American playwright Eugene O’Neill. First published in 1940, the play premiered on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on October 9, 1946, where it ran for 136 performances. The story is set in a bar, and most of the characters are losers who intend to reform their lives "someday". [I, 2]
• Prince Mishkin, or Myshkin, is the titular protagonist in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel The Idiot. [I, 2]
• A Turkish bath (in Turkish, hamam) is a kind of steam bath. [I, 2]
• Elmer Rice (1892–1967) was an American playwright. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his 1929 play, Street Scene. Rice was born Elmer Leopold Reizenstein in New York City His 1923 play The Adding Machine is generally considered the first American Expressionist play. The story concerns Mr Zero, an accountant at a large, faceless company. After 25 years at his job, he discovers that he will be replaced by an adding machine. The play was made into a musical in 2007, and opened off Broadway the next year.
• Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the statutory title of qualified accountants in the United States who have passed the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination and have met additional state education and experience requirements for certification as a CPA. Individuals who have passed the Exam but have not either accomplished the required on-the-job experience or have previously met it but in the meantime have lapsed their continuing professional education are, in many states, permitted the designation "CPA Inactive" or an equivalent phrase. In most U.S. states, only CPAs who are licensed are able to provide to the public attestation (including auditing) opinions on financial statements. The exceptions to this rule are Arizona, Kansas, North Carolina and Ohio where, although the "CPA" designation is restricted, the practice of auditing is not. Many states have a lower tier of accountant qualification (below that of CPA), usually entitled Public Accountant (with designatory letters "PA"). However the majority of states have closed the designation "Public Accountant" to new entrants, with only about 10 states continuing to offer the designation. Many PAs belong to the National Society of (Public) Accountants. [I, 3]
• Stop the world, I wanna get on! is a reference to Stop the World - I Want to Get Off,  a musical with a book, music, and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley. [I, 3]
• The Dixon Ticonderoga Company is an American office and art supplies maker with headquarters in Heathrow, Florida, which offers a number of distinctive brands. One of the most well-known is Ticonderoga - the yellow No.2 pencil, known for its distinctive green and yellow ferrule, smooth laydown and premium wood. Other brands include Dixon and Oriole pencils, Dixon Industrial products, Prang school and art supplies and Lyra art products. [I, 3]
• One of the rejected manuscripts in the search for the worst play ever features the opening sentence to Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, where a character named Gregor Samsa wakes up to find himself transformed into a "giant cockroach". Bialystock quickly dismisses the story idea as "too good". In a case of life imitating art, however, The Metamorphosis was produced on Broadway in 1989. The play, featuring Mikhail Baryshnikov as Gregor, and Rene Auberjonois as Gregor’s Father, ran only from March 6, 1989 through July 1, 1989. [I, 5]
• Off Broadway used to refer to a theater located outside the Broadway theater district in Manhattan, but today refers to works produced in theaters with 99-500 seats. The Equity requirements for salaries, &c are different from those in Broadway productions. There is a further category of Off Off Broadway for theaters that seat fewer than 100. [I, 5]
• A homburg is a kind of felt hat characterized by a single dent running down the center of the crown and a brim fixed in a tight, upwards curl. It is superficially similar to the trilby and fedora; however, those types of hat have soft, snappable brims and can have various designs pinched into the crown, whereas the shape of a homburg is fixed. It was popularized by King Edward VII after he visited Bad Homburg in Hessen, Germany, and brought back a hat of this style. Like the trilby or fedora, the homburg was once quite popular and is still available in almost any color, but the most common colors are black, gray, and brown. In Britain a black homburg became widely known in the 1930s as an "Anthony Eden" after the Government Minister of that name. [I, 5]
• Lederhosen (leather trousers in German; singular: Lederhose) are breeches made of leather; they may be either short or knee-length. The longer ones are generally called Bundhosen. There is a widespread misconception that lederhosen are a traditional national costume (Tracht) in German-speaking countries. They are instead leisure wear for working-class men, and are better associated with Bavaria than the rest of Germany, although they are also popular in Austria, Switzerland, and the German-speaking part of Italy. [I, 6]
• Sir Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister during World War II is well known for loving Havana cigars, whisky, and brandy, but an excellent painter, writer, and historian. [I, 6]
  • The German language has two words for painter: Maler is the artist (like Churchill), and Anstreicher is the house painter (like Hitler).
• The Siegfried Oath is named for Siegfried, the hero of the German epic Die Nibelungenlied. However, it may refer to the Siegfried line (German: Siegfriedstellung) the line of defensive forts and tank defenses built by Germany as a section of the Hindenburg Line 1916–1917 in northern France during World War I. However, in English, Siegfried line more commonly refers to the similar World War II defensive line, built during the 1930s, opposite the French Maginot Line, which served a corresponding purpose. The Germans themselves called this the Westwall, but the Allies renamed it after the First World War line. [I, 6]
• The colors black, white, red were the German national colors under the Empire from 1866 to 1918, and again under the Nazi regime, 1933-1945. The current German national colors, black, red, gold, were first used at the 1813 Battle of Leipzig, where Napoleon suffered a major defeat. They appeared again in the 1848 revolution, and were proposed as the German national colors in the Frankfurt parliament, 1848-1850. After World War I, the colors were adopted as the national flag by the Weimar Republic, and again, after World War II, by both West and East Germany, and by the reunited Germany in 1989. From 1933-1935, Hitler ordered the use of both the black, white, red tricolor flag and the Nazi flag, which had the same colors. In 1935 a German ship was docked in New York harbor, and some anti-Nazi demonstrators came aboard and tore down the Nazi banner. They could not be convicted of an international incident, because the court ruled that the tricolor was the German national flag. After that Hitler ordered that only the Nazi banner be used as the German flag. [I, 6]
• The swastika has been used as a religious symbol for centuries. The name comes from Sanskrit, and has been used in India by Hindus, Buddhists, and Jainists. In Japan and Korea, it appears on maps at the site of Buddhist temples. In the United States, it was the divisional insignia of the 45th Infantry Division until the late 1930s. It was used by American Indians, particularly the Navajos and Hopis. It appeared on Arizona highway signs up until World War II. But because of its association with the nazis, it has been banned in many European countries. In the United States, it is not banned, but social pressure limits its use. [I, 7]
• The Grand Duchess Anastasia (1901-18) was the youngest of the four daughters of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra. Along with their son, all of them were murdered by the Bolsheviks at Ekaterinburg July 17, 1918. However, there was a legend that Anastasia alone survived, and there were several women claiming to be Anastasia in the 20th century. However, DNA evidence has now proved their claims false. (The name means "resurrection".) [I, 7]
• The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco skyscraper in New York City, located on the east side of Manhattan in the Turtle Bay area at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Standing at 1,047 feet, it was the world’s tallest building for 11 months before it was surpassed by the Empire State Building in 1931. After the destruction of the World Trade Center, it was again the second-tallest building in New York City until December 2007, when the spire was raised on the 1,200 ft Bank of America Tower, pushing the Chrysler Building into third position. In addition, The New York Times Building which opened in 2007, is exactly level with the Chrysler Building in height. [I, 7]
• Cologne, or eau de Cologne, is a kind of toilet water, scented with about 2.5% essential oils. The name has become generic. It was named for the city of Cologne (Köln in German; originally Colonia Agrippina), the fourth largest city in Germany. The city is located on the Rhine, and is noted for its cathedral. [I, 7]
• The Tony Awards (short for the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre) are presented annually by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League. The ceremony is held in New York, usually in Radio City Music Hall. [I, 7]
• I’ll do it! is a reference to the plot of 42nd Street. When the star Dorothy Brock breaks her leg, the director Julian Marsh has to find a replacement, which is Peggy Sawyer, a naïve member of the chorus. She is reluctant, and even quits the show, but Marsh finds her at Penn Station, and talks her round.  [I, 7]
• Sabu was the shortened name of Sabu Dastagir (1924–1963), a film actor of Indian origin—he later took American citizenship. He was normally credited only by his first name, Sabu, and is primarily known for his work in film during the 1940s. His film appearances include Elephant Boy (1937), The Thief of Bagdad (1940), Jungle Book (1942), Arabian Nights (1942), Black Narcissus (1947), and Song of India (1949). [I, 7]
• A wandering minstrel I is a solo by Nanki-Poo, the tenor, from Act I of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado.
• merde is French for "excrement". (The German word is Scheiss.)
• Hals und beine brüch! is German for "Neck and legs broken!"
• Gott im Himmel! is German for "God in heaven!"
• Bon chance, mes amis! is French for "Good luck, my friends!"
• verboten is German for "forbidden".
• poulet is French for chicken; tête is French for "head".
• Gloria Swanson (1899-1983) was an American film actress most prominent during the era of silent films. Her popularity waned during the 1930s. Today she is probably best known for her role as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard (1950). She is also known for a mole under her left lip.
• The samba is a dance and musical form originating in Brazil, with African roots. The music is in 2/4 or 4/4 time. It evolved partly from an earlier Brazilian dance, the maxixe (pronounced: maSHEESH), which was popular around 1910. (The maxixe was considered so risqué for its time that both government and church tried to suppress it, but to no avail.)  Samba dancing and music is considered an integral part of Brazilian culture, especially at carnival time. The international ballroom samba dance is based on the Brazilian samba, but is not quite the same. [II,5]
• Joseph Goebbels was Propaganda Minister in the Nazi government, and was one of Hitler’s most trusted aides. He earned his Ph.D. from Heidelberg University, and was attracted to the Nazi party early on. He perfected the propaganda technique of the "big lie". He was the chief instigator of Kristallnacht, or night of the broken glass, where synagogues and Jewish businesses were attacked all over Germany in 1938. He remained in Berlin until the end, when he murdered his six young children, and then he and his wife committed suicide. [II,5] 
• Erin go brach is Irish for "Ireland forever"; Erin being a poetic name for Ireland.
• lamé—an ornamental fabric in which metallic threads, as of gold or silver, are woven with silk, wool, rayon, or cotton. [II, 5]

Locations

• The Shubert Theatre is a Broadway theater located at 225 West 44th Street in midtown Manhattan. It was named for Sam Shubert, the second oldest of the three Shubert brothers of the theatrical producing family. It shares a Venetian Renaissance facade with the adjoining Booth Theatre, which was constructed at the same time, although the two have distinctly different interiors. The two theatres are connected by a private road/sidewalk, Shubert Alley. It opened on October 21, 1913.
• Chambers Street (location of Whitehall & Marks) is two-way street in Manhattan. It runs from River Terrace, Battery Park City, in the west, to 1 Centre Street, the Manhattan Municipal Building, to the east. In the early 20th century the street continued through that building’s archway. Between Broadway and Centre Street, Chambers Street forms the northern boundary of the grounds surrounding New York City Hall and the Tweed Courthouse.
• Jane Street (location of Franz Liebkind’s apartment, #61) is a five block long street in the west part of Greenwich Village, Manhattan. Greenwich Village, or simply The Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of lower Manhattan. During the late 19th to the mid 20th centuries, it was known as a Bohemian capital, and was the center of the Beat movement. The name was originally Dutch Groenwijck, but the name was close enough to the name of the borough of East London. Because of its Bohemian association, it has now undergone gentrification, and today is mostly a middle-class residential area.

• Much information here from Wikipedia.
• Some definitions are from dictionary.com; others from Wiktionary.
• Definitions labeled {OED} are from the Oxford English Dictionary

Program Drafts

• Program cover
• List of Scenes
• Set Construction
• Reading copy of bios

• Updated 6/30/2010 and 01/06/2013
• McQ’s theater home page
• Please send additions, suggestions, comments, or corrections to tf_mcq <at> yahoo.com.