In the espionage game, the secret to success is telling people what they want to hear. That’s the lesson of “The Tailor of Panama,” a film which sends up spy-film conventions even as it embraces them.

Tell us a bit about Spy Movie: The Play!? Jack: It’s a wildly ambitious, low-budget homage to the spy movie genre—with a lot of chaos and cardboard thrown in. Think DIY James Bond. A frustrated ...