Fortune Theatre – until 19 August 2023
Reviewed by Claire Roderick
5*****
This brilliant and bonkers show about one of the most brilliant and bonkers operations of WW2 is one of the best productions to hit the West End in years.
After acclaimed runs at Southwark Playhouse and Riverside Studios, The Fortune is the perfect home for this insane musical. A bigger budget adds polish and a truly glitzy finale, but the heart and soul of the show remains unchanged. (Just ask random strangers in the bars – you will bump into people on their umpteenth viewing.) The genius/gruesome plan devised by British intelligence planting fake papers about a bogus Sardinian invasion force on a corpse that would wash up on a beach in Spain for Spanish officials and German operatives to find has been portrayed on film – The Man Who Never Was in 1956 (very stiff upper lip) and Operation Mincemeat in 2021 (not even Colin Firth could save that one). It takes a special mindset to imagine that this bizarre deceit is prime material for a musical comedy, but luckily for us, SplitLip are that mad and the New Diorama Theatre were that brave. SplitLip’s (David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts) book, music and lyrics are genius (Are they ACTUALLY in MI5? If this is part of a plot to conquer the world through song and dance and clip-on ties, it could work…).
It is impossible to talk about the plan seriously, and SplitLip go straight for the comedy jugular, with most of the intelligence officers acting as if they are still in the common room of a public school and utterly convinced of their superiority. One of the intelligence men is Ian Fleming, providing a lovely running joke as his colleagues tell him how terrible his writing is. As the man child behaviour carries on, the women in the office sing a fabulous Beyonce style number about the opportunities the war has given them. The efforts to find a suitable corpse and to provide a credible life story and paper trail are fascinating and very, very funny, especially when Jak Malone’s kinky coroner is onstage. It’s not all plain sailing, with a possible double agent, some bizarre coincidences and shoddy preparation creating jeopardy and comedy gold.
Natasha Hodgson is breathtakingly brilliant and has a ball playing Ewen Montagu as a complete chancer leading the man with the plan, meek outsider Charles Cholmondeley, astray as Monty plans for a bright future living off the acclaim and fame that will inevitably be his. David Cumming is wonderfully awkward as Charles and Claire-Marie Hall is a joy as secretary Jean Leslie – the plucky gal role if this was a 1950s film, but here a fully rounded young woman relishing being valued for her ideas and not her tea -making. Zoe Roberts is deliciously daft as our hapless man in Spain, and is also the calm, mature axis of the show as Johnny Bevan, watching the antics of his men with increasing frustration and disbelief. Jak Malone is hilarious as the creepy coroner, but his beautifully judged portrayal of the mature, steadfast Hester Leggett creates one of the most moving moments in the show as Hester sings Dear Bill – a love letter to the imaginary airman. Friends who are army wives have praised (through sobs) how the gorgeous lyrics capture their turmoil of emotions perfectly and will absolutely break you. Their ensemble work is mind-blowingly intricate, and the energy blasting off the stage is incredible and truly uplifting.
SplitLip’s lyrics are fast and funny, cramming more laughs into one song than some productions manage in an entire show, and covering a wide range of musical styles, with Jenny Arnold’s inspired choreography adding to the hilarity – you’ve never seen Nazi’s move like this. Amongst the hilarity are poignant reminders of the seriousness and human cost of the mission – switching mid-song between debauched scenes in a London nightclub and the quiet tension of the submarine crew as explosions rock the vessel. The mission ends with a glitzy finale celebrating the key personnel of the mission – Monty’s entrance is worth the ticket price alone – before the cast lead a quiet but stirring tribute to the man who never was – Glyndwr Michael.
Like its inspiration, this musical straddles the line between genius and madness. When Charles has doubts about the plan, Monty advises him to grasp any small flashes of joy in this dark world – Operation Mincemeat is no small flash, it is a huge explosion of joy and wit illuminating the West End this year.
Buy. A. Ticket. You have your orders – now go!