ORANGEBURG — When Mel Brooks' "The Producers" opens at Tappan Zee High School on Friday, it'll have a Nazi playwright, a major production number called "Springtime for Hitler" and an actor playing a director playing the fuhrer for laughs.

But some South Orangetown parents drew the line at swastikas.

After someone posted a rehearsal photo on social media last week showing giant Nazi flags over the Tappan Zee stage, some parents were offended, and let the administration know they were offended.

B.J. Greco, who handles media requests for the South Orangetown School District, said four parents complained.

"If you come in out of context, you can misinterpret," Greco said. "If you're not hearing it and you're looking at a visual, certainly it can be misinterpreted. The play is a parody. The swastika is an icon and it's not a parody and it causes different feelings in different people. We have opted to remove the swastikas. We felt that was in the best interest of everybody."

A Facebook post went up and spawned a thread that stretched from the offended to the non-offended to name-calling and charges of anti-Semitism — and that was the adults. Student Ian Joselow, a member of the Tappan Zee cast, called for civility and made the case that the students should not be dictated to, but be part of the conversation about their musical.

Garrett Shin, left, and Greg DeCola are Leo Bloom and Max Bialystock in Tappan Zee High School's production of “The Producers” this weekend.
Mel Brooks' "The Producers" won a dozen Tony Awards when it took Broadway by storm in 2001, skewering Hitler as an object of ridicule. In the musical, two unscrupulous producers, Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom, try to make a killing by overselling pieces of a guaranteed Broadway flop — called "Springtime for Hitler" — and pocketing the proceeds. "The Producers" ran for 2,502 performances.

Larchmont native John Treacy Egan was on stage for many of those performances, playing playwright Franz Liebkind, director Roger DeBris and Bialystock over several years with the company.

On Broadway, Egan said, there were swastikas "all over the place."

Egan said he recalls only one production where Brooks' musical was altered due to the sensitivity of the subject matter.

"I have a friend who was in the Israeli production, and there were no swastikas. None," he said. "And they refer to Hitler as 'the fuhrer,' they never say his name. They were dressed in storm trooper outfits, but they didn't use any swastikas. But even in Germany, they used them. They had a sense of humor about it."

After the controversy stewed on the closed Facebook group "South Orangetown Parents," Superintendent Robert R. Pritchard, Principal Jennifer Amos and director Ed Clinton met late last week and Clinton was directed to remove the flags.

"I don't think it was a topic open for discussion," Greco said. "The Facebook photo was viewed as unacceptable."

Cast members said Thursday that some characters will continue to wear armbands. They would not comment on the record, fearing reprisals from the school board, they said. Clinton did not respond to an interview request.

Once the flags were ordered removed, Greco said, Clinton explained to the students the context for the problem, why people would be offended by the flags.

South Orangetown Schools teach about the Holocaust in middle school, Greco said, including having Holocaust survivors talk to students.

Tappan Zee isn't the first area high school to stage "The Producers." Ardsley High School staged it a few years back.

Greco wouldn't comment on whether she felt the musical is appropriate for high schools, one of the topics discussed on the Facebook page.

"As a piece of art, it's funny and fabulous," she said. "If you look at it as a historical piece, it's not something to be made fun of. But how do you separate that? It was picked because it was a popular play and we haven't done it."

Twitter: @peterkramer