By: Mariam Nabbout
Source: Stepfeed

Few would have imagined that the words “Iraq war” and “musical comedy” would ever appear in the same sentence, but an off-Broadway revival set in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq has brought them together.

Titled “Baghdaddy”, the show reflects on the numerous failures of the U.S. intelligence services that led up to the war and sends powerful messages to the current U.S. administration.

“Baghdaddy tells 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,” Al Araby reported.

Speaking about the show, its producer, Charlie Fink, said that “if you put ‘Hamilton’ and ‘The Office’ in a blender, you would have this show.”

The plot opens in the present day with a group of disgraced CIA spies gathered at a support group, as they seek redemption for the mistakes that still haunt them years after the war.

Through flashbacks to events that preceded the invasion, 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.”

The script is fast-paced and 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 says that today, the show’s “message is more relevant than ever, as some fear that [U.S. president Donald] Trump could drag the country into another conflict, if not in Syria then over North Korea.”

The show had a first run in 2015, but Fink says the sense of immediacy that it now has was missing back then.

On tackling such a sensitive subject matter through comedy, the show’s director Marshall Pailet says: “it’s a great vehicle to get New York theatergoers thinking,“ adding that people “open up their minds and their hearts with comedy.”

“More than 4,500 U.S. troops have died in Iraq since 2003. Some estimates for the number of civilians to have perished range from 173,916 to nearly half a million.”

“Never does the show laugh at war itself.” Instead, it’s portrayed to remind everyone of wounds that will never heal.