Spike Lee Goes To Broadway

Watch out all you lily-white theatergoers, black people are coming to Broadway. Later today, acclaimed director Spike Lee will announce that he’s [reviving Stalag 17], a comedy-drama about POWs in a concentration camp who believe a Nazi spy is among them, to open some time next spring. Lee agreed to do the project despite never having worked in theater, and being unable to recall the [last time he attended a play](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/theater/27spike.html?ref=theater). But after persistent nagging from [Michael Abbott](http://www.theatredb.com/QPerson.php?pid=p021276) —who produced the off-Broadway 1951 version when he was 21 years old, and will produce this version as well—Lee agreed to do it, as long as he could put his own stamp on it. What is that stamp, you ask? Well for starters, the cast will be multi-racial, because we all know how many black Jews and black Nazis there were at the time. Don’t worry though, he’s promised not to cast 50 Cent as the lead. Seriously, he made that promise. Other possible changes will include the addition of profanity to the script; apparently he’s been told the Germans weren’t such nice guys, and concentration camps weren’t exactly fun getaways.

Original photo courtesy of iStockPhoto