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I really liked this show- energetically and at times brilliantly performed. The script had a couple of flat spots but overall a fantastic production- well done.
By Jonfringe on 18.3.2009, 4:03pm

The poster sold me, the idea was ingenius, the execution faltered at times, and the ending is not going to be for everyone. But overall Hitlerhoff is classic fringe material.
By TravelnHere on 18.3.2009, 4:03pm

Hitlerhoff, writer Tom Doig’s enigmatic fusing of pop culture hero David Hasselhoff and history’s greatest monster Adolf Hitler, is a theatre experience that is somewhat akin to a herd of charging rhinoceros. It’s loud, it’s constantly in your face, it’s more than a little bit evil and to top it off it’s also sickeningly hilarious. Tobias Manderson-Galvin, who plays the production’s titular hero, is relentlessly funny at times and soiled-underpants-scary at others, bringing an intensity to the role that such an over the top character begs for. Georgina Andrews and Joel Davey do not disappoint either, each of them breathing life into a ridiculous horde of characters throughout the production’s hour-long runtime. Hitlerhoff is offensive, sure, but it also features an unflinching and important message that’ll hit you like a verbal kick to the genitals. And call me a Commie thespian if you must, but I loved every second of it.
By Liam Sharrad: Rip It Up Magazine Adelaide on 13.3.2009, 11:03pm

Saw the show tonight [Thurs 12th March] and really enjoyed it. Wonderful performances and a script which was funny and thought provoking. I especially liked the last monologue.
Why didn't the actors come out at the end of the play to take a bow? This is a serious question - so please answer. Theatre like this is a celebration. I would have liked to show my appreciation, and I feel the actors deserve recognition for a job well done.
But once again congratulations!

Paul
**
Hi Paul,

cheers for your feedback! we decided to not have the actors take a bow, so that the final speech's "message" would stay with the audience more strongly, and not get broken by the artifice of theatre - and yes, by the celebration of that artifice. you might have to track the actors down at the Fringe bar and thank them there!

tom d
By Paul Gilchrist on 12.3.2009, 5:03am

I loved it, I loved it, I loved it! I had a sore stomach afterwards from laughing and yet also felt a bit queasy too. There was some very overt, powerful imagery and powerful dialogue which you weaved seamlessly with double meaning. The video components added a very interesting dimension and gave an eerie sense of there being a greater force at hand. I found the black comedic aspects really served to enhance and mirror the sense that something evil is lurking just below the surface yet it is nicely camouflaged which I guess presents the greatest threat. I see these camouflaged evils in our pop culture and society in general. So too your jokes with double meaning deliver the greatest sting of all.

Toby was of course absolutely brilliant, as were Simone and Ezra. I'm in awe of the energy that I know has gone into their performances as well as that of all the other team members. I am also truly in awe of all the hours upon hours that I know you have put into, not only the show but everything that came before it. I hope you have been able to put your feet up and bask in the glory of accomplishing such a feat. Thank you for giving me so much food for thought, I am indeed hungry : )
By Lana Knapp on 3.12.2008, 4:12pm

Sorry to have been slow to tell you how much I really enjoyed your show. I’m generally allergic to “enjoyed”, ever since a class came out of the film of Sophie’s Choice many years ago and I asked for responses...”I enjoyed it”. But here it is right: you aim to get people responding to a hundred historical, psychological, cultural tweaks while they ENJOY it. Please do give my warmest congratulations to all involved: great cast, staging, and direction. The concept with Hasselhof (to my surprise) worked even for those of us who’d barely (?) had a brush with Baywatch: a big writing credit to you.
By Tony Barta on 3.12.2008, 3:12pm

The result of two years research for a creative writing Masters thesis, the script of Fringe Festival play Hitlerhoff is brilliant. It is packed with one-liners, discomforting holocaust jokes, pop culture references (Dr Phil-style ‘follow your dreams’ clichés and the best of John Williams’ film scores) and literati send-ups (Waiting for Godot becomes a trilogy: Return of the Godot and The Godot Strikes Back).

Writer Tom Doig merges the personas of Adolf Hitler and David Hasslehoff to create a character so grotesque and bizarre you will laugh out loud and cringe with disgust.

The title role is played with incredible energy and commitment by Tobias Manderson-Galvin, who takes the character from his upbringing as an aspiring actor by a doting yet insipid mother and a father who calls him a ‘homo-fraulein’ in ‘leather panties’ through a series of increasingly hysterical attempts to give expression to his extreme egoism and misunderstood artistic genius.

Supporting Manderson-Galvin are Simone Page Jones and Ezra Bix, both excellent. Bix delivers the funniest moment of the play with a side-splitting portrayal of the Artistique Director of Juilliard Academy, who after an unsuccessful audition calls Hitlerhoff a philistine and implores him never to perform in public, ever. Hitlerhoff is crushed again and again.

Taunted by his nemesis, The Red Tide (of Communism), Hitlerhoff is told that his jokes are not funny, his irony not clever and his homophobia and sexism reveal infantile Oedipal tendencies. Humiliated but undeterred, Hitlerhoff’s desire for fame and glory turns to resentment and rage.

Exploring themes of mass hysteria, propaganda and consumer culture, Hitlerhoff plays on the danger and ridiculousness of the human desire to be ‘special’ and ‘make a difference’. Images of the actual ‘special treatment’ experienced by six million Jews during the Second World War are juxtaposed with the raucous antics of a cast in Baywatch swimsuits, making for chilling and thought-provoking satire.

http://www.artshub.com.au/au/news.asp?sId=174358&ref=hubber
By Cecilia Mitchell, Artshub reviewer on 6.10.2008, 8:10pm

oh my god. Hitlerhoff was just insane. I think a part of my brain died permanently, like it just gave up on me for subjecting it to that.... tobias was hilarious and amazing... I would recommend seeing it... is it good?.. I'm not sure... HAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA one thing is for sure they really had a lot of fun putting it together ...
By Carlotta Deville on 6.10.2008, 8:10pm

I just cant get it out of my head.
By Sam H on 2.10.2008, 2:10pm

never has a man looked so good in tight red spandex manties.
By Carla Sammut on 1.10.2008, 8:10pm

There are few things in this universe more powerul than the

POWERFUL STARE OF IAN MCKELLEN

And that’s my review. I would like to discuss this show with others. It’s very good that way.
By Born Dancin on 1.10.2008, 8:10pm

An unholy fusion of the lives of Adolph Hitler and David Hasslehoff that's performed by a cast of three with the assistance of some simply superb video projection (congrats to Anto Skene and Puck Murphy) this twisted piece of camp irony was outrageous and laugh-out-loud funny. It did seem to drag a little towards the end, so I think it might have benefitted from being maybe 10 minutes shorter (though this may also have been an opening night flaw, as I was told today the show ran overtime on its first night), but for the most part it's a very silly, very funny, and very wrong show. Special mention should be made of of Simone Page Jones and Exra Bix, who between them play a punishing range of characters, and do so with comic aplomb.

**Three and half 'did he just say what I think he said?' gasps out of five.
By Richard Watts on 1.10.2008, 8:10pm

I didn't know you could DO that with history!
By Doug Hendry (lecturer, Melbourne University Media & Communication Department) on 30.9.2008, 9:09pm

I was stunned and awed by the performances of the three willing characters.A story that needed to be told.
Hitlerhoff is a man of courage and vulnerability....what a great show for this years fringe!!!
I hope you travel the universe.
By carolina on 30.9.2008, 5:09pm

“Hitlerhoff: a whirlwind tour of fake tan and moustaches, in which audiences are invited to consider the controversial parallels between Adolf Hitler and David Hasselhoff. Together at last!

Tobias Manderson-Galvin is unstoppable in the title role, revelling in every Freudian reference or chance to goose-step through shallow waters. His supporting cast, Simone Page Jones and Ezra Bix, is no less formidable. This is an incredible undertaking, with director Erin Kelly successfully containing the many elements.

For all its postmodern irony this is, simply, a show whose speedos are bulging with gags.

Writer Tom Doig has produced a clever, funny and outrageous play. Have no doubt; this is where the cool kids will be this Fringe Festival.”
By Margaret Paul, The AGE reviewer on 29.9.2008, 5:09pm

It's a cool name for a show. But, what will the "Hoff" say about it? Probably nothing, cause he'll be too busy drinking.
By Creamy McSprog on 29.9.2008, 4:09am

Wonderful gig. Loved it.

Dr. Julie Kimber
Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Melbourne Branch
By Dr. Julie Kimber on 29.9.2008, 1:09am

Germany is ready for this show ... it would be a big controversy ... can you please sign a poster for me?
By NIKOLAI (from KOLN, GERMANY) on 28.9.2008, 6:09pm

Intelligent ... sophisticated ... perfectly cast ... the leading man [Tobias Manderson-Galvin] is incredible ... I've been talking about nothing else."

- Esther Anatolitis, General Manager Melbourne Fringe
By ESTHER ANATOLITIS on 28.9.2008, 6:09pm

HITLERHOFF IS TERRIFIC!! IT'S MINDBLOWING!! ... it's a riotous legendary experience beyond any you've ever seen and felt before!!!
By Thomas Henning on 28.9.2008, 12:09am

Hitlerhoff manages to splice two seemingly incommensurate genres into one brilliant meta-text: history as we know it is annihilated by the blitzkrieg trash-abyss that was Baywatch. Theatre-goers of Melbourne watch out - there is a new axis of evil, and it's name is Hitlerhoff!
By David Mence on 28.9.2008, 12:09am

'A farrago of arrant persiflage ... Tom Doig has shown us that there CAN be poetry after Baywatch.'
By Marcel Dorney on 28.9.2008, 12:09am

In mashing the lives of Hitler and the Hoff, the team behind Hitlerhoff expose the transformation of the fascist personality cult into the culture of self worship and celebrity adoration.

Everybody is special. Some people are more special than others.
By Benjamin Teicher on 27.9.2008, 5:09pm

Wow! I saw Hitlerhoff last night, and it was such a pleasure to see the culmination of such hard work by such talented people. The Hitlerhoff creature, which has been living in the collective imagination of all the cast and crew, has drawn its first breath. What a celebration! But, you know, I was left feeling horrible and bad and uncomfortable and clammy and a bit sick.

This is how I am supposed to feel, I know, but nonetheless, I felt horrible even though I knew what it was about and completely knew the content. How strange that none of the impact is lost, the more familiar one is with the show.

The reason why it made me feel so awful is because it is so easy to just sit there and receive all the light and sound and movement and energy. For all that stimuli to just fill our brains. For our brains to just accept it. The same way our brains accept, ingest and process all the messages and media and atrocities on a daily basis. So many references both overt and subtle are crammed into Hitlerhoff, that even the most detached person couldn’t help but pick up on them.

It is so disturbing to see how sheer darkness can be wrapped up in frivolity and swallowed so readily.

This is the point.

Realising it doesn’t make it any less
confronting.

So now we know. We are reminded of something we know in our souls, something that we always knew but something that we manage to ignore in our day-to-day lives. Once again the (rhetorical) question arises, ‘what do I do about it?’ Whenever I come to this place, whether it be from thinking about human suffering, corruption, war, the lip-service given to our dying seas, lack of concern for the world’s diminishing forests and the dwindling biodiversity, a German word comes to mind. This German word is ‘Mitl’ufe’. Literally it means ‘with + run’. Its meaning is complicity. For me it evokes an image of someone who goes along with something, even though they sense or know it is wrong. In Nazi times it referred to those people who were well aware that their Jewish neighbours were disappearing but they didn’t quite know for sure if the rumours of what may have befallen them were true. It was to unbelievable to believe. So they just continued to live their lives pushing that inkling of sinister darkness out of their minds. Passive. Not seeking the information that would allow them to be sure.

It is a bit like us and global warming / climate change, the same beast whatever the name. We are not sure if that is really happening so we will buy giant LCD TV screens and Hummers until we are completely sure that this is the cause of resource depletion. But we won’t stop consuming as a pre-emptive measure. We won’t change anything about our lives or our behaviour until we are sure, until it has been proven.

What is the answer? Consume less. Sure. Seek knowledge. Act. Tell people. Give them permission to see what they sense and to voice that. Wake up! Wake up out of this induced slumber of helpless not-quite-sure-ness. (Ironically, ‘wache auf’ - German for ‘wake up’ - was also used in Nazi propaganda to galvanise the German public of the 1930s.)

Hitlerhoff reminds us what we already know: It’s all connected. It’s all happened before. It’s happening now.

I think that is what makes me feel so sick.
By Alex Finkle on 26.9.2008, 11:09pm

I was great. phenomenal. Spectacular. I had the North Melbourne Town Hall eating out of my hand.
By hitlerhoff on 26.9.2008, 6:09pm

As the writer/producer, I wouldn't dare comments on my own show, except to say - I'm over the moon. However, i AM going to transcribe some stuff people said ...

Chair of the Melbourne Fringe Festival, Richard Watts, took his friend Carl along. Carl said it was "the best fringe show I've seen in years".

I carried that one around with me all night.

Thanks Carl!
By Tom Doig on 26.9.2008, 5:09pm