Date of Visit – August 2025
The comedy about Spies is a Mischeif Theatre production which is playing at the Noel Coward Theatre until September and has been on a limited run here since April 2025.
After seeing a clip of this production on TV a few months back, I knew I had to pay a visit before its closure.
Here’s what I took away from a very special evening, what I liked, disliked, and the overall experience.
BEFORE THE SHOW:
Before this evenings performance, I decided to check into Z Hotel Holburn and visit Camden Market. It was my first time staying in a Z Hotel, but with work giving me the Friday morning off, I decided why not stay the Thursday night in London.
The hotel room was an inside room, which I usually find are some of the cheapest hotel rooms across the city. Although clean and well decorated, it was very cramped. And I wouldn’t recommend staying here for more than a couple of nights.
With it being summer as well, it was fairly pricy at £98 for the night. Nonetheless, I had a good night’s sleep and would recommend it for a quick overnight stay.
I also headed over to Camden Market for a quick browse around the stalls and shops as well as treating myself to these French tacos, which were okay at best.
SYNOPSIS:
The Comedy About Spies follows CIA and KGB spies as they converge on a London hotel trying to get hold of a secret file, which is believed to have been stolen from a corrupt British MI5 agent.
THEATRE EXPERIENCE:
The Comedy About Spies is currently playing at the Noel Coward Theatre in London’s West End and is closely located to Leicester Square tube station.
According to the theatres website, there are three licensed bars throughout the venue. However, I only visited one located on the stalls level.
I treated myself to a cider and a programme which cost me £11.10 overall, £6.10 for the cider and £5 for the programme. This isn’t awful for a West End theatre, and I’ve paid more in the past at other venues.
At the end of the production, I decided to purchase some merchandise and got a cool pin badge set, which cost me £18. This was on the pricy side, but I don’t often buy theatre merchandise, so I thought, why not?
Today’s performance, as I said earlier, was extra special as it was being recorded.
This meant we had a little talk from the director at the beginning of the performance and the cast at the end which was really interesting and something i had never seen before.
In the words of one of the cast members, our laughter has now been immortalised forever in film, which is pretty cool if I do say so myself.
For this performance, I was located in the Royal Circle in seat C3, and although having a mostly cear view, you do miss some action in the top right of the stage. Nonetheless, it was still a pretty good seat with most things visible on stage.
This ticket would have set me back £83. However, I only ended up paying £33 as one of my best friends kindly gifted me a £50 London Theatre Direct voucher to use at a number of productions across London.
The view for the price, in my opinion, was decent. However, I would have been a bit annoyed if I had paid the full £83 as during one scene, you do miss vital gags that happen in the top right-hand corner of the stage.
However, apart from that one scene, everything else was visible on stage.
SHOW REVIEW:
The Comedy About Spies was one of, if not the funniest, piece of comedy I had ever seen.
The use of rapid fire gags and innuendo alongside silly puns just made this show so great.
The use of staging, in my opinion, was also amazing. With the stacked grid of four hotel rooms being a really fun concept, as we could see into each room while all the shenanigans were happening.
In my opponion, the standout part of this production was the cast. Each member brought extremely good comedy timing to the role, and I thought each and every one of them absolutely made this production so great. Especially considering most of them played a mixture of roles throughout the performance.
A special mention to Henry Lewis, who I had previously seen in Mischeif Productions on the BBC. He was absolutely phenomenal in his role of Douglas Woodbead (“the actor”), his comedy timing was absolutely incredible and his character was involved in some of the funniest parts of the show, espically in the laundrette scenes.
I honestly have nothing negative to say about this production, and I can’t think of anything I’d change. I guess my only advice would be make sure to pick a seat without any obstructions as I did miss a couple of gags in the hotel room scenes as I couldn’t see the whole of the top right bedroom.
CONCLUSION & SUMMARY:
I’d highly recommend seeing this production, but you have to be quick as it closes in just a couple of days on the 5th of September, so make sure you grab the final tickets before it closes its doors.
However, if you do miss out on seeing it, I am hopeful that due to the filming taking place, this production, like many others by Mischeif Theatre, will also eventually make its way to TV.
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