Cast of “Who’s Your Baghdaddy?”.

It seems unfair to consider Who’s Your Baghdaddy? or How I Started the Iraq War as part of the Fringe festival, and not just because its run extends two weeks beyond Fringe. The production values of this world-premiere show are at a professional level, thanks to the skills of Marshal Pailet (Director, Music & Book), A.D. Penedo (Lyrics & Book) and Charlie Fink (Producer). Then again, the show does depict the Deputy Director of the CIA as the Pope and features the title song “Who’s Your Baghdaddy”, a hilarious hip-hop romp through German nightclubs. So maybe it fits, after all — especially because it’s just plain fun.

The musical is set up much like a Greek tragedy, depicting the hubris of three men who became partially responsible for the mistaken identification of WMDs in Iraq. While establishing from the onset that it is “Hystorial Fiction”, the show proceeds to use a variety of oddball touches, including a saucy Greek chorus trio called the “Funditz” and a game of Battleship, to tell a serious moral tale about our recent past. Designating three separate time periods — 2001, 2002 and 2003 — with the cunning use of armbands, the three “heroes” all become, in their separate years, entwined with the informant known as Curveball and his claims of insider information on Iraqi weapons.

Everyone knows how the story went (and it’s still going); the musical’s strength lies in depicting the overblown passions of the folks who allowed their ambitions and beliefs to overstep good, careful procedure. Pailet and Penedo are wise to make the show a comedy, light and direct throughout, as the tragedy is too fresh and too foolish to be palatable in any other way.

The production is all aces: the songs are memorable and beautifully sung, Kyle Mullins’ choreography is remarkably fluid given the tight space, and the company is so uniformly good at that I won’t mention anyone singularly because there isn’t space to discuss them all. There are a few kinks to work out, including some unfunny insult-trading amongst the Greek chorus and an unnecessary tune, “Music to Me”, which seems to exist mainly to give solos to a few characters. But in the end, this is a show that you should expect to see in larger (and pricier) venues very soon.

Who’s Your Baghdaddy? or How I Started the Iraq War has 5 remaining performances at Fringe, listed here. After that, it continues independently until August 7; tickets and more information on the extended run available here.