The Performance

1937. Harold May is an American Jew and a highly talented tap dancer, looking for his big break. During a tour in Europe with his company and his old girlfriend Carol, he is scouted by a German, Damian Fugler who, unaware that Harold is Jewish, offers him a large sum of money to put on a show in Berlin: but when he gets to Germany, Harold discovers that the show will be an exclusive performance for Adolf Hitler.

COMMENTARY
Harold May, a virtuoso tip tap dancer and an American Jew, on a European tour with his troupe, gets an offer from a German that he can’t refuse: a handsome sum for arranging a performance in Berlin. The German doesn’t know that Harold is Jewish; the year happens to be 1937 and, once the troupe arrives in Germany, they learn they will be performing for Adolf Hitler himself. Shira Piven (director of Welcome to Me starring Kristen Wiig, Fratellastri a 40 anni, and Fully Loaded) directs this adaptation (co-written with Josh Salzberg) of a story by Arthur Miller, in which the energy of dance is intertwined with the portents of war. Starring Jeremy Piven and Robert Carlyle.

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
This is no stodgy period piece. While it will remain strongly grounded in the late 1930’s period reality, there is a contemporary energy and ever so slightly heightened style to our storytelling. Dreams and dance numbers will come to life, but war looms, lending a sharp tension to Harold’s predicament as a Jew, as well as Fugler’s predicament as executor to Hitler’s wishes.