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Fresh cast shine in the Fringe-to-West-End wartime success storySummary
Rating
Excellent
If there’s a show in London that doesn’t need another glowing review, it’s Operation Mincemeat. Nevertheless, here it comes…
You probably know the plot either from the publicity around the musical or from the 2021 Colin Firth film. In a nutshell, it’s the story of an incredible plan during World War II to mislead the Nazis about Allied plans by planting fake strategy documents on a dead body washed up in Spain.
The show begins as broad satire bordering on slapstick, and from the get-go features some remarkable quick changes of costume and character. The stagecraft is exemplary, and accomplished with that apparent effortlessness which is the hallmark of theatrical excellence.
As the audacious scheme develops, we get to know the main players (entitled Etonian MI5 employees, military stuffed shirts, nerdy scientist, plucky new girl in the typing pool, and many more) and the characterisation is necessarily thumbnail but clear and effective. The music and lyrics are strong if not exceptional, and the production powers along at a very satisfactory lick.
As an aside, the cast of five leap from gender to gender with total conviction, but I was struck by the realisation that a woman in a suit or uniform playing a man is simply taken as a man, whereas a man with similarly ‘feminine’ accessories is inherently comic.
Entertaining though the show is, it shifts gears late in the first half and succeeds in adding some genuine emotion to the knockabout fun we’ve been served up to then. Having sourced a suitable body for the scheme and started setting the plan in motion, the simple question “But who was he?” reminds us this is war, and the people involved were as real as the audience watching it.
This is soon followed by the highlight of the show: Hester’s song ‘Dear Bill’, during which the fabrication of a love letter turns into a revelation that this is a woman who has already loved and lost during the previous World War. It’s almost unbearably moving and had me stifling sobs of sorrow.
Hester is played by Christian Andrews, who also excels as – among others – a dodgy coroner, a submarine captain and a gung-ho American pilot. For me, Andrews is the man/woman of the match.
Elsewhere, Emily Barber’s Ewen Montagu is the first character we meet and is immediately a skilful hand upon the tiller of the tale. Sean Carey imparts entirely convincing geek as the insecure originator of the plan, and inhabits an endearingly awkward character masterfully – his delivery of a running gag about newts is a comic highlight. Claire-Marie Hall gives aspirational office girl Jean real heart, and transforms herself into numerous other roles quite magically. Chloe Hart is similarly versatile, from no-nonsense boss Johnny Bevan to a hilariously sweaty Spanish contact – this is an actor of breathtaking range.
As well as the above, the cast turn on sixpences to give us cheeky cockneys, noble sailors, disco Nazis… the list of characters is enormous and all are brilliantly realised.
Operation Mincemeat attracts hordes of repeat visitors. As I stood to join the ovation at the end, a grin on my face and tears in my eyes (there’s a killer moment right at the end) I think I had a sense of what makes them keep coming back for more.
Book, music and lyrics by: David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, Zoe Roberts
Directed by: Robert Hastie
Produced by: Avalon, Split Lip
Operation Mincemeat is booking through to 2025. Further information and bookings are available here. (note that this is an affiliate link and we will receive a small commision for every sale – please do consider using as it helps us keep this website running)
