’Baghdaddy’: New York turns Iraq war into musical

Cast members of the Musical comedy Baghdaddy perform a scene during a dress rehearsal at the St. Luke's Theater in New York. (AFP)

NEW YORK: The Iraq war may not sound like musical comedy, but an Off-Broadway revival is spinning intelligence failures and tragedy into a farce that offers potent messages for Donald Trump’s America.
“Baghdaddy” officially opened on Monday, telling the true story of an Iraqi defector, code named Curveball, whose claims about weapons of mass destruction became justification for the US-led invasion in 2003.
“If you put ‘Hamilton’ and ‘The Office’ in a blender you would have this show,” said producer Charlie Fink of the Broadway smash hit about American founding father Alexander and the US television sitcom.
The plot opens in the present day with disgraced CIA spies gathering at a support group — think Spooks Anonymous — as they seek understanding and redemption for mistakes that haunt them years later.
The action then switches back in time to Frankfurt airport, where the informant offers to trade apparent secrets about Saddam Hussein’s presumed bio-weapons program for political asylum.
German intelligence consults the CIA, where analysts driven by ambition, office crushes and intransigent bosses see Curveball as a ticket out of everyday routine and a fast-track to promotion.
But the growing farce quickly gives way to the 9/11 attacks, swapping comedy for tragedy and the onset of a war still being fought today, 14 years after an invasion found no weapons of mass destruction.
It is a fast-paced script woven into a tight score that blends traditional musical theater and camp dancing with hip-hop tracks that carry a stark warning that history should not repeat itself.
Fink said it is more relevant than ever in today’s climate of “fake news” and “alternative facts” as some fear that Trump could drag the country into another conflict, if not in Syria then over North Korea.
“It has an immediacy that it didn’t have in 2015 and a sense that we’re doing this all again,” said Fink, referring to a short run two years ago.
“It feels like a time when rules are being rewritten and authority is listening to its instincts, rather than listening to facts and analysis. And that’s scary,” said Fink.