At first, the audience is horrified by Springtime for Hitler, but once the leading man appears as a fey Hitler (“Heil Myself”), they realize that this is not a show they should take seriously and begin to eat it up. When their surefire flop is hailed as a hit, the partners have a serious disagreement about what to do next. Bloom wants them to turn themselves in, while Bialystock has other ideas. As they argue, DeBris and Ghia show up at the office, ready to celebrate, only to have a deranged Liebkind arrive brandishing a gun…eager to kill all of them for denigrating the memory of his beloved Hitler. Hearing gunshots as they arrive on the scene, the police cart Liebkind away. Before they leave, however, they notice two sets of accounting books, one marked “Show to the IRS” and the other marked “Never Show to the IRS.” They promptly arrest Bialystock, but Bloom escapes the raid while hidden behind the office door.
When Ulla enters and finds Bloom hiding, she convinces him to take the money and disappear with her to Rio. In his jail cell, Bialystock is surprised to receive a postcard from Brazil, and it sends him off the deep end (“Betrayed”). At Bialystock’s trial, Bloom and Ulla suddenly appear (“‘Til Him”), just in time for the judge to pronounce both Bialystock and Bloom guilty. Incarcerated in Sing Sing, they, along with Liebkind, produce a brand new musical with a cast of inmates titled Prisoners of Love. Pardoned by the governor “for having, through song and dance, brought joy and laughter into the hearts of every murderer, rapist and sex maniac in Sing Sing,” Bialystock and Bloom take the show to Broadway, where they go on to produce hit after hit after hit.
“There’s something timelessly appealing about this story,” says director / choreographer Stroman. “Like any good musical, each character fulfills all his hopes and dreams. Audiences either see themselves in Leo Bloom, a caterpillar who wants to become a butterfly, or they see themselves as Max Bialystock, a man who was on top and wants to rise to the top again. Our movie also has an endearing love story—the mousy accountant wins the most beautiful woman in the world.”
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