Adolf Hilter: My Part In His Downfall

Adolf Hilter: My Part In His Downfall

31 July, 2009
by: Sandraleong

One of Spike Milligan's most memorable musings on World War Two is about how it all began: 'A man called Neville Chamberlain who did Prime Minister impressions spoke on the wireless.  He said: 'As of eleven o' clock we are at war with Germany'.'  The irreverent bon mot, reproduced with perfect comic timing in the opening scenes of this musical comedy, is true enough, a taster of all things to come.  Oh dear, this is going to be an evening of sheer, utter lunacy.

Staged at the Hampstead Theatre, Adolf Hitler: My Part In His Downfall is an adaptation by Ben Power and Tim Carroll of Milligan's trilogy of books documenting his fortunes in the British forces' North African and Italian campaigns. The boys of Battery D are represented by a solid cast of five who certainly earn their rations. At the helm is Sholto Morgan, making a worthy professional debut as jazz-loving gunner goon Milligan who's chief troublemaker to a motley gang of British soldiers. The actors move seamlessly in and out of multiple character roles within the army barracks, all the while singing, dancing and playing instruments with madcap aplomb.

Sholto Morgan (third from left) leads the cast as Spike Milligan

The gags are typically Milligan – absurd, nonsensical but immensely funny. Arriving a few months late for duty, Milligan tells his superiors that he'll make it up by 'working nights as well'. His best mate Edgington, played by Dominic Gerrard, is inexplicably attached to a tea cup. And Hitler is, predictably, a sitting duck. The Fuhrer is impersonated with a cardboard standee and at one point, is obsessed with proving to the Tommies that the Germans can also 'do jazz'. Throw in a lively, jazzy score for good measure - from nostalgic renditions of war ditties like 'Swing Low Sweet Chariot' to swing classics like 'Chattanooga Choo Choo' – and the result is one-and-a-half-hours of uproarious fun.

Using the set-up of an army barracks talent show, the script segues conveniently from sketch to sketch, song to song. The first half hurtles along in laugh-a-minute fashion as the bored soldiers resort to much tomfoolery to kill time. The second, however, doesn't quite sparkle. The pace slows slightly to reflect Milligan's growing disenfranchisement with the war yet these sentiments don't quite come across. One gets the feeling that cast members are better equipped for quick fire exchanges, silly capering and musicianship than they are for soul-searching moments. But it's a minor quibble. Seeing the darker side of a man whom some of us know only as a barking mad old geezer on TV perhaps strikes a necessary balance in the overall tone of the piece.

Still, these heavier moments don't linger. Indeed, deafening bombs go off and two characters actually die tragically but it's barely two seconds before the trumpets and saxophones are whipped out again for another big jazz number. World War Two according to Milligan is unsurprisingly, a rather jolly microcosm of real events. Similarly, one could say that this production is made up merely of entertaining vignettes of Milligan's colourful life. There is no glimpse of the method behind his madness, but you get the feeling this was never the intent anyway.

What this is then, is an unapologetic homage to the comic genius whose legacy has often been understated. You'd be quite mad not to enjoy this.

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Sandraleong