WHO’S YOUR BAGHDADDY available for on-demand streaming!
The gang is back! WHO’S YOUR BAGHDADDY is available for on-demand streaming!
Presented as a support group for people who started the Iraq War, this dark, boisterous and irreverent story follows a handful of mid-level spies whose vanity and office politics contributed to the worst intelligence blunder in modern history.
The Australian Premiere of this 2017 hit Off-Broadway musical was presented by Curveball Creative, was directed by Neil Gooding and starred Blake Erickson (Shrek), Doug Hansell (Come From Away), Phillip Lowe (Georgy Girl), Laura Murphy (Muriel’s Wedding), Matthew Predny (Kinky Boots), Adam Rennie (The Rocky Horror Show), Katrina Retallick (Come From Away) and Troy Sussman (Aladdin). The show was livestreamed in June 2020, with the cast and crew all performing live (and socially distanced) from a Sydney house transformed into a soundstage. The production was a technical feat, setting great new precedents for the abilities of streaming theatre digitally.
Director Neil Gooding said:
Six months ago, amidst the start of the pandemic, I couldn’t have imagined the opportunity to put a musical together like this with our resilient, willing group of actors, designers, and technicians. This true blend of musical theatre and filmmaking allowed so many brilliant performances and innovative technical ideas to come together and really shine… All of us are humbled that this production will be seen worldwide and hopefully inspire other theatre artists to be creative in new ways.
The musical is set in an “AA-style” support group meeting for people who believe (or don’t want to believe) that their actions lead to the start of the Iraq War. The story focuses on the recruitment and eventual disgrace of an Iraqi defector, codenamed “Curveball”, and the use and misuse of his testimony by the CIA, State Department and Bush Administration. In the show, as in reality, Curveball provides Western intelligence agencies with false intelligence on Iraqi mobile weapons laboratories. This intelligence, which is later discovered to have been fabricated, was used by Secretary of State Colin Powell in his 2003 speech to the UN Security Council to justify the invasion of Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein.
Inspired by a true story, WHO’S YOUR BAGHDADDY (OR HOW I STARTED THE IRAQ WAR) is a satirical musical comedy with music and book by Marshall Paillet, lyrics and book by A.D. Penedo, based on an unproduced screenplay by J.T. Allen. The show was produced Off-Off Broadway at the Actor’s Temple in 2005 and Off-Broadway at the St Luke’s Theatre in 2017.
WHO’S YOUR BAGHDADDY is available for on-demand streaming at the Curveball Creative website now, and will be available on BroadwayHD from November 11th.
