drag one's feet

先ほどと同じ記事から英語表現を拾います(The tills are alive (The hills are alive) - 田邉祐司ゼミ 常時英心：言葉の森から)。面白い書き出しです。映画The Producersを観ていたら、よくわかるのでしょうが、まだ観ていないので残念ながらわかりません。

さて、「ミュージカルは現実の世界でも大変だ」と始まる第二パラグラフに注目します。気になるのがdrag one’s feetという表現です。『リーダーズ英和辞典』によると「足を引きずって歩く」というそのままの意味から転じて「故意にぐずぐずする、なかなかやろうとしない」という意味があることがわかります。(Othello)

The tills are alive - Musical theatre
IN MEL BROOKS’S film “The Producers”, two men plot to make a fortune from a flop. They raise more money than they need to stage a musical, by selling all the shares in it several times over. Then they try to make the worst show ever: “Springtime for Hitler”. They assume it will close in a night and they will be able to abscond with the cash, since no investor will demand a cut of non-existent profits. To their horror, the audience loves it.

Musicals are risky in real life, too. So when David Geffen, a showbiz mogul, approached Mr Brooks about turning his movie into a musical over a decade ago, Mr Brooks dragged his feet. Mr Geffen tried to convince him it was worth the hassle: he had made more money on the musical “Cats” than on any film he had ever made. This helped win over Mr Brooks, says Alan Schwartz, his lawyer. They put “The Producers” on Broadway (see picture). Mr Brooks made a packet.

つづく