Comedy About Spies
- tabithacatlin
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Adelphi Theatre - Mischief Comedy
Interview with Nancy Zamit - Janet Buchanan
The 5-star rated comedy show by the well-loved Mischief Comedy, 'The Comedy About Spies', is breaking into the Adelphi Theatre this summer, and if you need to see it again or missed out last year, now is the time! Want to know a little more about it? CLICK HERE for our review.
It is showing for 8 weeks, and you can catch it from 01/08/26 to 26/09/26. You would be a villain to miss out on this one. It stars the original Mischief cast and some new faces as well. We managed to have a chat with one of the incredible Mischief members, Nancy Zamit. My mum knows Zamit as 'Tinkerbelle in' 'Peter Pan Goes Wrong', but you may know her from many Mischief shows. Such as, Play That Goes Wrong, Groan Ups, Magic Goes Wrong, The Comedy About a Bank Robbery and many more. It was a privilege to speak to Nancy about The Comedy About Spies.
Here is what we talked about:
Q: Tell Us About The Show?
A: It is a hilarious spy show, about three different groups of spies spying on each other! It's the British, the Americans, and the Russians. It's set vaguely in the Cold War. Everything goes awry because people spy on the wrong people. There are a couple of other characters that get looped into being spies when they're not supposed to. The spies that are supposed to be good aren't. Then, the end is unexpectedly emotive. You have to see the show to find out what happens.
Q: What is your role in the show?
A: I play Janet Buchanan, who is an American. She is a loud, brash mother who is in this hotel, getting involved. Her character is an overbearing mother. It's a really fun role to play!
Q: How did you prepare for the role?
A: That is a massive question, but it's not usually so big. In really early rewrites, my character was a teenager and young. She reminded me of Megan Salter's character in the comedy series 'Hacks', who's an agent's daughter, and a nepo baby, and my character was originally similar to that. It didn't really hit like we thought it would, and I do this kind of crazy, brash New York woman a lot in Mischief movie night. So we decided to go with that style of character, because I do it well. So we wrote that in. Dave Hearn and I had this dynamic between our characters grow, me being an overbearing mother and him being this eye-rolling son. It worked well because it's a little bit like how we are in real life. We've known each other for like 20 years, and we are like siblings.
But then, week 2 of rehearsals, I had my ovary removed. So, I was recovering from a massive operation. My amazing understudy, Allie Dart-Munro, stepped in. I was taking a back seat and doing what I could whilst I recovered. Allie was just like my right arm, and she just made everything so amazing. I'm so grateful for her; she's the greatest actress and the greatest person. If you turn up at work and someone who's just won an Offie is your understudy, you're like, what is happening? The most incredible person to work with. If I could just bang on about Allie Dart Monro for the rest of my life, I would. I basically couldn't have done the show without her.
It's a very physical show. There's literally a treadmill on the stage. It feels like a marathon to perform. We've done a lot of physical shows, and it's definitely up there. We are ageing as a company, so we do have to be fit. After the show's run finished, I was packing up my dressing room. There were all these bandages, Savlon, and loads of weird medical things. I thought to myself, 'What's this?' I had forgotten that at the start of the run, I was dressing open wounds. I just forgot that my surgery had happened. That's acting, man!
Q: What makes this show different from any other Mischief show?
A: Our work rate is so fast sometimes. We know all of 'the goes wrong' characters so well that we can create a 'goes wrong piece' quickly. But this one, we have been creating it since 2019. We had a residency at the Vaudeville Theatre, and we did 'Magic Goes Wrong' and 'Groan Ups' there. Then they'd booked us in for a third show. It was originally just called 'Spies'. I think the first version of it was something mad, it was all black and white and silent, it was a really high concept piece of theatre. Then COVID happened, and the middle of the magic goes wrong run. We never did the 3rd show.
Then the boys took it away and came up with loads of different ideas. We had loads of read-throughs, and there was so much development. It's really rare for us to develop a show over a matter of years. It makes it feel different, and I think the audience can sense that. We've got a wonderful team. Shelley Maxwell, who has worked on the movement, is just unbelievable. She's worked on anything great that you've seen recently, such as 'The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind' and lots of shows at the National Theatre. She's an unreal lady. Matt DiCarlo, our director, is also a Broadway spectacular! He worked on 'The Colour Purple' that starred Cynthia Erivo. His knowledge of directing is just wild! It's really lovely to work with him, because he did 'Play That Goes Wrong ' with us when we transferred to Broadway, when we were dinky. This journey's taken us so far. All of these elements give this Mischief show its difference.
Q: What makes this show stand out in the West End?
A: We just create silly, funny things. I also think this show is physically impressive. I think the combination of high-level physicality and a total stupidity whirlwind is something that Michief are really good at. Visually, it's quite a spectacle! This big, amazing visual production: big lights, set, and then having a selection of stupid gags is our style. That's what makes it stand out.
Q: Do you think you would make it as a spy?
A: I'd have to be one of those spies who are in plain sight. I'd have to say that I was a spy all the time to make people think that I wasn't a spy. I don't think I'd be a good spy. I don't know. On the other hand, all actors might be good spies, because they can lie well. I think I'm just too loud and brightly coloured to be a spy. I'd have to be the mayor, but really a spy. So I was in all the papers all the time, in plain sight.
Q: In one sentence, why should people come see the show?
A: It is a group of people who have been doing comedy together for 20 years, showing their best show yet!
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