2024 ‘BEST NEW MUSICAL’ OLIVIER AWARD®-WINNING OPERATION MINCEMEAT TO OPEN ON BROADWAY IN 2025
The best of theater in 2023
“The Brits have made the year’s funniest musical…Against the odds, the “Operation Mincemeat” gang has found its way to the big time.”
Peter Marks, The Washington Post
#1 2023 Theatre Show
“Despite all that Hollywood firepower, my top pick was a homegrown musical about the UK’s role in World War II”
Sarah Rappaport, Bloomberg
“Is the quite splendid “Operation Mincemeat” ridiculously clever or cleverly ridiculous? Both…this is the musical you didn’t know you needed”
David Benedict, Variety
“My far-and-away favorite production—and a complete surprise to me—was the musical “Operation Mincemeat… a comedy that has been cheerfully dismantling jingoism builds a stirring vision of real fellowship in its place.”
Helen Shaw, The New Yorker
“the feel-good West End musical of the summer… The reviews for the show have been ecstatic… the overwhelming impression is of hopefulness, expansiveness, possibility and joy.”
Alexis Soloski, The New York Times
74 ★★★★★ reviews and counting
The Olivier Award®-winning ‘Best New Musical’ Operation Mincemeat, created by a quartet of young British creatives, will open on Broadway at the Golden Theatre – its first musical since the Tony Award® Triple Crown winner Avenue Q – on 20th March 2025. From 15th February, when previews begin on Broadway, Operation Mincemeat will run simultaneously in New York and London, with the West End’s Fortune Theatre recently receiving an incredible 10th extension from ATG through 8th March.
Operation Mincemeat began as a tiny (and tiny-budgeted) production at the London Fringe New Diorama Theatre in 2019. The show quickly gained a devoted following, spurring sold-out runs at venues including Southwark Playhouse and Riverside Studios. It finally premiered in the West End on 9th May 2023 at the Fortune Theatre, where it won the Olivier and WhatsOnstage Awards® for ‘Best New Musical’, alongside garnering 74 five-star reviews and counting, and has become the ‘Best reviewed show in West End history.’
The decision to write the musical was the last roll of the dice after years of performing sketch shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and echoes the journey of Beyond the Fringe from the world-famous quartet Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller, and Dudley Moore, which premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1960, before moving to the Fortune Theatre and later to the Golden in 1962.
Casting, ticket prices and show times to be announced.
SpitLip – David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts – the musical’s writers and composers, said: “If we had to name one single unifying influence for Operation Mincemeat, it would be the American Musical Comedy. The Producers, Guys and Dolls, Wicked, Avenue Q, The Book Of Mormon – we never dreamed we would even get to go see shows like these on Broadway, let alone open our show alongside them. Thank you to our fans, and particularly those in the US for getting Operation Mincemeat here. If it gets hounded out of Broadway after one night, it will still be beyond our wildest dreams. Our producers, we’d imagine, would be less pleased.”
The Broadway announcement comes on the heels of the musical’s West End American audience growing from 2% in 2023, to now reaching 14%.
Broadway tickets will go on General sale on 20th November. Sign up here for priority access to a fan pre-sale on 18th November. Tickets for the West End’s Fortune Theatre run until 8th March 2025 are available only from the Official Box Office here.
The year is 1943 and we’re losing the war. Luckily, we’re about to gamble all our futures on a stolen corpse.
Singin’ in the Rain meets Strangers on a Train, Noel Coward meets Noel Fielding, Operation Mincemeat is the fast-paced, hilarious and unbelievable true story of the twisted secret mission that won us World War II. The question is, how did a well-dressed corpse wrong-foot Hitler?
The production is directed by 2023 Olivier Award® nominated Robert Hastie (Standing at the Sky’s Edge, National Theatre – 2023 Best New Musical Olivier Award® winner), following providing directorial support for the Riverside Studios run, while Olivier Award® nominated Jenny Arnold (Jerry Springer: The Opera, National Theatre) continues as Choreographer. Also from Standing at the Sky’s Edge at theNational Theatre on the creative team are: 2023 Olivier Award® nominated Ben Stones (Sylvia, The Old Vic) as Set and Costume Designer, Tony Award, six-time Olivier Award® and Bafta Award® winning Mark Henderson (Girl From the North Country, Broadway & Noël Coward Theatre) as Lighting Designer and Olivier Award® winning Mike Walker (Jerry Springer: The Opera, National Theatre) as Sound Designer. Grammy Award® winning and Tony®, Emmy® & 2024 ‘Outstanding Musical Contribution’ Olivier Award® nominated Steve Sidwell (Beautiful: The Musical, Broadway & Aldwych Theatre) is Orchestrator and Vocal Arranger, while 2024 ‘Outstanding Musical Contribution’ Olivier Award® nominated Joe Bunker is Musical Director. Georgie Staight is Associate Director and Paul Isaiah Isles is Associate Choreographer. Casting is by Pearson Casting. The extraordinary debut musical is written and composed by SpitLip – David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts.
Operation Mincemeat won the 2024 ‘Best New Musical’ and ‘Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical’ Olivier Awards®, following receiving six nominations. These awards trail winning the 2024 ‘Best New Musical’ WhatsOnStage Award and the ‘Best West End Show’, ‘Rising Star’ and ‘Best Understudy’ West End Wilma Awards. Previously on the show’s journey, Operation Mincemeat has picked up the Off-West End award for ‘Best Musical Production’ and ‘Best Company Ensemble’ and The Stage Debut Award for ‘Best Composer/Lyricist’.
Operation Mincemeat is produced in the West End and Broadway by Avalon (in association with SpitLip). The show was commissioned by New Diorama Theatre, co-commissioned by The Lowry, and also supported by the Rhinebeck Writers Retreat.