SpitLip’s anarchic adaptation of one of the second world war’s weirdest stories has been working its way up from the fringe for four years now. A West End run is the ultimate proof of concept for this irrepressible musical comedy, and the ingenious ensemble who created and perform it.
Its plot is well documented from history books to Hollywood: Britain needed to fool Hitler into moving his troops out of Sicily before their planned European invasion, so the secret service planted false plans on a corpse, and floated it on to a Spanish shore. What makes this version of the real-life spy caper so joyfully smart, not to mention topical, is its focus on the overweening arrogance (and sometimes ineptitude) of the Eton-educated war “heroes” who came up with the plan.
