Fortune Theatre, London – until 28 February 2026
Reviewed by Phil Brown
5*****
If you haven’t already noticed, Operation Mincemeat is already a hit show. In spades. Having already garnered two 2024 Oliver Award wins including Best New Musical from six nominations, and a 2025 Tony Award for Best Musical, it enters its third year with a new cast, an extension til end February 2026 in London, and a landmark world tour. It is also running simultaneously in New York.
It seems almost ironic that the marketing and roll-out campaign behind Operation Mincemeat (the musical) seems a far better planned and resourced military operation than even the wartime project that spawned it. To paraphrase a line from a well known war film, it feels like… victory.
Set in 1943, Operation Mincemeat is a true story. It has been the subject of an excellent book by Ben Macintyre and a rather plodding film in 2022 (despite using some top class British acting talent). In essence, it was a cleverly devised “sting” or deception, run by MI5 with the Admiralty, to convince the German military command that a forthcoming allied invasion of Europe would initially target Sardinia and Greece rather than Sicily. It involved seeding the lie via a supposedly crashed, dead pilot carrying secret plans, washed ashore in Spain rife with German spies.
The idea of turning this story into a hit musical seems a huge leap for even the most extravagant left field thinker. As far as I know, the Dam Busters or Sink the Bismark have not been made such a transition! So it would take some desparate veterans of the Edinburgh Fringe – the Splitlip dream team (David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, and Zoë Roberts) – to believe they could also pull off something as significant as Operation Mincemeat. Their first big win was getting the backing of New Diorama Theatre and The Lowery.
Today, Operation Mincemeat (the musical) must surely represent the summit of British theatrical creativity, ingenuity and expertise. Every aspect of this production is superlative. Aside from the brilliantly clever Pythonesque script, which takes every opportunity to send up the officer classes, possibly the most innovative element of an ultra high voltage show is the wonderfully eclectic mash up of styles and forms of theatre, music and dance that mesh beautifully into a highly polished masterpiece. In many ways, it feels like a show conceived in the spirit of ENSA (Entertainments National Service Association) – something they might have dreamt up if only it had had access to the facilities and technology of today (director – Robert Hastie).
The action morphs dynamically and smoothly between typical musical fare, revue, pantomime, end of the pier, farce, slapstick and melodrama amongst other forms. The 20 excellent songs range from traditional musical stylings to anthemic, rap, electronic and K-Pop (music director – Joe Bunker) whilst the imaginative dance routines incorporate some intricate moves with corded telephones as well as modern moves made famous by Ed Balls on Strictly (choreographer – Jenny Arnold). A word on the set – unfussy but cleverly designed and extremely effective (Ben Stones) and the costumery was equally ingenious (Lydia Hardiman).
It’s truly astonishing that such an ambitious and high energy endeavour can be so well delivered (on stage at least) by just 5 actors playing multiple roles and a four piece band – all displaying seemingly incomprehensible levels of versatility, mental capacity and stamina along with extraordinary timing and coordination. Teamwork and the performing arts at its most professional.
In line with the ‘do the unexpected’ ethos of the show, senior commanders are played by female actors – Alex Young (playing the gung-ho Lt-Commander Ewen Montagu who jointly developed the Operation Mincemeat plan) and Chlöe Hart (playing the sceptical Colonel Johnny Bevan who oversees the project ) – with conversely, Danny Becker taking on the key female role (playing a marvellously prim Hester Leggatt, a senior MI5 clerk on the team). Peter McGovern (playing the reticent Charles Cholmondeley, a scientist who originated the Operation Mincemeat concept) and Roshani Abbey (playing Jean Leslie, another MI5 clerk) complete the cast for this particular performance. (There is a second pre-existing cast (Madeleine Jackson-Smith playing Ewen Montagu and Jean Leslie, Geri Allen – Johnny Bevan, Jason Kajdi – Hester Leggatt, and George Jennings – Charles Cholmondeley)).
It seems unfair to single out individuals in such a wonderful set of complete performances by the cast, but for me, Danny Becker stood out, not only as the demonic coroner required to provide the dead airman central to the plot, but particularly as Hester Leggatt performing a very moving song, “Dear Bill” in creating a realistic love letter to reinforce the ‘legend’ of the dead airman. He demonstrated impressive all round artistry in the second act as an American pilot singing “The Ballad of Willie Watkins”.
It is a nice touch at the end to acknowledge the role played by Glendwyr Michael who as Acting Major William Martin was the dead pilot in the deception..
Despite the nature of the subject matter, Operation Mincemeat is a cracking story, brilliantly transformed into two hours of sustained high quality humour and delivering richly intelligent entertainment and some of the slickest fun ever. It sets a very high bar for future musicals. Put simply, 79 (and counting) five star reviews simply don’t lie.