The Comedy About Spies - Adelphi Theatre - Review

Having received critical acclaim when it premiered at the Noel Coward theatre last year, I think that we all knew that it wouldn't be long before Mischief Theatre's The Comedy About Spies returned to the glittering West End. And we were right to assume as it comes roaring back, this time taking up residence at the larger Adelphi Theatre where it remains just as slick, just as ambitious and just as funny.

Stepping away from their much loved and well oiled goes wrong machine, The Comedy About Spies (penned by original Mischief cast members Henry Lewis and Henry Shields) is a cold war spy caper that sees American and Soviet spies converge on a London Hotel. Both want to get their hands on Project Midnight, a secret weapon from MI5 and there's a turncoat and both want to get to the handover, but who will get there first? Throw in a young couple looking to have a romantic weekend, a jobbing actor preparing to audition for James Bond and a hotel manager who is just trying to impress a secret shopper and its a recipe for espionage fuelled chaos that has the audience laughing from start to end.

The cast from the original run of the production returns, with Mischief team member Bryony Corrigan taking over the role of Soviet spy Elena Popova from Charlie Russell, teaming up with Chris Leask as Sergei Ivanov.

Playing the role of wannabe Bond Douglas Woodbead, Henry Lewis is on fine form as he earns huge laughs delivering one liners, clever wordplay and innuendos whilst Henry Shields takes on the role of the bumbling heart of gold baker Bernard, constantly hilarious as he finds himself wrapped up tightly in a spy back and forth. His partner Rosemary, played by Adele James, navigates frustration at Bernard's stumbling attempts at romance. As CIA agent Lance, Dave Hearn makes slapstick look easy and gets many a laugh forming a double act with Nancy Zamit as Lance's mother Janet.

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Corrigan's Elena is calm and collected, the perfect spy in her eyes, forced to work with the clumsy, back story creating Sergei (Leask), who speaks first and maybe thinks later. Whilst this is a true ensemble piece, with everyone given their chance to shine, I don't think I would be alone in saying that this is Leask's standout production with his throws himself into the action without thinking spy Sergei perhaps earning the biggest laughs, go team friendship and all that. We also have to give credit to Greg Tannahill's hotel manager Mr Tipton (is there a Suite Life of Zack and Cody reference in that name - who knows), who has several laugh out loud moments and delivers several hilarious, highly quotable moments.

In what is perhaps Mischief's most ambitious production to date, the set is both huge and genius with a dollhouse style four room set up allowing us to see the action unfolding in four hotel rooms simultaneously, creating never ending laughter and great back and forths where every joke perfectly lands. The set works in great unison with Lewis' and Shields' slick, polished and fast paced script. The writing is clever, intricate and laden with jokes which runs well with the fast action. And whilst this is a comedy carefully crafted to produce as much laugher as possible, it is also a spy thriller, and the audience hang on every character's every word as the drama unfolds with several gasp inducing moments, and maybe even a Friend's reference to look out for.

Overall, The Comedy About Spies is a gold standard comedy caper that takes spies and throws them into rapidly spirally chaos with the most hilarious of results. With every new production that Mischief brings to the stage, they continue to prove themselves to be the leaders of funny, the masterminds of comedy and best providers of laughter is the best medicine. And whilst this production won't be around for long, I'm sure that this won't be the last that we see of these spies.