Any play that conjures the line, “I’ve got a kitchen full of prostitutes and Nazis”, has to have something going for it.

Someone described as a “leading media liberal” was reportedly overheard in the foyer asking “why has nobody called this show racist?”. I wish someone had replied, “why has nobody called you stupid?”. This long-anticipated Broadway musical may offend in many ways, but being racist isn’t one of them.

This may be the year’s unlikeliest world premiere. Conceived and written by American Philip Himberg, the show was inspired by an Israeli documentary that followed Filipino immigrants who work by day in Tel Aviv as carers for elderly Chasidic men, and by night in gay bars as a drag act called The Paper Dolls.

These are some of the facts. In 1992, an American archaeologist called Albert Glock was shot and killed in Bir Zeit, on the West Bank. Reports say he was killed by an Israeli weapon used by a unidentified masked gunman who escaped using a car with Israeli number plates. Theories surrounding the case include plots by Hamas cells and Israeli agents.

With one national treasure playing another, only the most committed republican could resist the charms of Helen Mirren’s serene portrayal of the Queen.

But only the most committed royalist would fail to feel slightly queasy by the end of this paean to the monarch.

If there is one compelling idea in director Jamie Lloyd’s urgent, blood-soaked vision, it is that the Macbeths’ plan to murder their king derives from being denied a child.