Operation Mincemeat is a musical based on the true story from World War Two. It’s a fun musical, but tells a hugely important story. Here’s my Operation Mincemeat the Musical theatre review.
Overview of Operation Mincemeat the Musical
Operation Mincemeat the Musical is a musical comedy, currently playing in London’s West End. It’s based on a true story from the Second World War. And while it deals with difficult, sensitive, topics, it’s still a really fun musical. My Operation Mincemeat the Musical theatre review is super positive, I really enjoyed this show. I’ll give a short summary of the plot, so be aware there might be some spoilers!
Operation Mincemeat the Musical has a cast of five performers. The five performers often play several different characters, with multiple instances of male actors playing female characters, and also female actors playing male characters. It’s nearly always completely clear when the actors change their character in the show, so it’s not confusing to watch. And it adds an extra level to the comedy of the show as well.
Plot synopsis of Operation Mincemeat the Musical
Operation Mincemeat the Musical follows the true story of Operation Mincemeat in World War Two. Operation Mincemeat was a deception operating in 1943, by the British Army. The operation involved making the Germans believe that the British forces were about to invade Sardinia, when actually they were planning to invade Sicily.
Operation Mincemeat the Musical starts with Colonel Johnny Bevan informing the others that they are looking for ideas for a plan. They’re looking for a strategy to convince the Nazis that they are planning to invade Sardinia. They hope that if the Nazis believe they are going to invade Sardinia, then the Nazis will move their troops away from Sicily. And this will mean that the British troops can successfully invade Sicily with fewer casualties.
The pitches for Operation Mincemeat
At first, there are some ideas for plans, but the Colonel rejects these. Then Charles Cholmondeley introduces the idea of Operation Mincemeat. He’s helped in his explanation of the plot by Montagu, and also Jean Leslie. The Operation Mincemeat plan involves finding a corpse of a man, dressing him as a British pilot, and placing the corpse in Spain where the Nazis will find it. The corpse will be holding ‘top secret’ documents that will leak to the Nazis that the British intend to invade Sardinia.
The Colonel agrees to go ahead with Operation Mincemeat.
Enacting Operation Mincemeat
The rest of the first half of Operation Mincemeat the Musical involves Charles, Montagu and Jean working together to enact Operation Mincemeat. They are also helped by Hestor, another woman who works in the office.
The team enlist the help of Spilsbury to find an appropriate male corpse they can use. They find one, and start creating the character Bill Martin for the male corpse. They need the Nazis to believe that he is a real British pilot. So they add receipts from venues in London to his wallet to make his life seem authentic. And Hestor helps to write a letter to ‘Bill’ from his imaginary fiancée at home.
Throughout the enactment of the plot, there are some concerns that Montagu could be a spy, since some documents seem to go missing. But the team continue to go ahead with the Operation Mincemeat plan. And at the end of the first half, Bill Martin’s body is dropped into the sea, ready to be washed up in Spain and discovered by the Nazis.
Act 2
Act 2 of Operation Mincemeat the Musical follows the next stage of the plan. The body of Bill Martin is washed up in Spain, as planned. But the team at the British Army must still work to ensure that the Nazis believe his body to be real, and believe that his ‘confidential’ papers are discovered and believed.
There’s a potential flaw in the plan when an American pilot crashes and lands in Spain. The team worry that the Nazi’s won’t believe that there are two ‘real’ pilots crashed there. There’s also concern when the Nazis want to do an autopsy of the body – the corpse died from rat poison, but the British army need the Nazis to believe that he died from drowning. The Colonnel, Charles, Montagu, Jean and Hestor all work with their contacts in Spain to try to rush the autopsy and ensure that the documents get into the right hands. There are disagreements among the team. Montagu is again accused of being a spy, but he reveals that he was taking the papers because he wants to make a film about Operation Mincemeat.
However, ultimately, the Operation Mincemeat plot is a success. The British team hear that the Nazis are moving their troops from Sicily to Sardinia. And ultimately, this leaves the British army able to invade Sicily with minimal casualties. It’s understood that Operation Mincemeat was one of the major turning points of World War Two, and contributed to the victory.
What I liked about Operation Mincemeat the Musical
I really enjoyed Operation Mincemeat the Musical. There were so many aspects of the musical that I enjoyed, but the highlight for me was the balance between humour and emotion.
The story – humour and emotion
My favourite aspect of this show was the balance the show managed to achieve between comedy and emotion. The story of Operation Mincemeat is ultimately a story about World War Two, so intrinsically it is serious and emotional. And the show really captured that. It captured how serious an operation this was. And it shows how the fortunes of the British army in the war were resting on the success of the plot. The show really got the audience invested in the plot, desperate for it to be a success.
But despite the serious subject matter, the show was still really funny. All of the performers were brilliant actors and singers. And they all managed to bring humour to the role. Spilsbury was a funny character, with his songs about dead bodies and red glitter blood on his costume. Charles was also funny, with amusing newt jokes. And the army officer in Spain was funny as well, with good humorous incompetence.
There was also a really nice emotional ending, where they pay tribute to the dead man, ‘Bill Martin’. They reveal his real name and who he really was. It’s revealed that his real name is Glyndwr Michael, and he was a gardener. And now there’s an inscription in Huelva, acknowledging Major William Martin who served in World War Two.
Theme of female empowerment
As well as telling the story of Operation Mincemeat, the musical also touches on some other important themes from the time. It tells the story of Jean Leslie, a woman who plays an integral role in the success of Operation Mincemeat. As a woman at that time, it’s a great achievement to have played such a key role in the army strategy. The show does a great job of showing Jean Leslie’s dreams, and how the role of women in society was changing at this time.
The songs – humour and emotion
I enjoyed the songs in Operation Mincemeat. So many of the songs had really clever lyrics, that really added to the story telling. There were a lot of good rhyming songs that were funny and really told the story. It’s the type of show
My favourite song in the show was ‘Dear Bill’, which is sung by Hestor. Hestor is an older woman who works in the office. She sees Charles, Montagu and Jean struggling to write a letter to put on the corpse, a letter that’s meant to be from Bill Martin’s fiancée. Hestor takes over writing the letter. Hestor (who is a female character, but played by a man in the show) delivers an amazingly emotional performance and we learn more about her character, behind her cold exterior. She writes a really emotional letter, drawing on her own experiences.
Hestor was my favourite character throughout the play. I thought she was a great character, played really well by the male actor. And it was nice that there was a hint at the end of a romance developing between Hester and the Colonel.
I also really liked the sea shanty style song ‘Sail on boys’. This was sung towards the end of the first half, when Bill Martin is sent out to sea. It was a really powerful and moving moment in the show.
Great staging and props
I thought the staging and the props in this show were good as well. The props really made it look like they were in the war office.
The show used the whole stage, with lots of movement around the stage. Another highlight of the show was a really clever sketch in the second half, involving four of the performers stood in a line and all exchanging hats and telephones. It was a really clever slapstick routine, where they were passing the phone and hats between them. It sounds really simple, but it must have taken days of rehearsing to get perfect and it was really fun and clever.
What I wasn’t so sure about
I really enjoyed Operation Mincemeat the Musical, so there’s not much I didn’t like. At first, I wasn’t sure whether I would like the fact that a lot of the characters were played by an actor of the opposite gender. I thought it might make the show too much of a joke and take away from the emotion of the show. But I really got into it, and I think it worked well overall.
There was a slightly weird part of the show towards the end of Act 2 where they’re all suddenly in flashy sequins and one of the characters ends up flying above the stage. I didn’t quite understand that bit, and why the show and costumes suddenly needed to change so much. It was part of the ‘Glitzy finale’, but to me it didn’t really add anything to the show. I preferred it when they went back to the costumes and staging that the rest of the show had been. But it was ok, and didn’t take away from the emotional ending.
Would I recommend Operation Mincemeat the Musical
I would definitely recommend going to see Operation Mincemeat the Musical. My Operation Mincemeat the Musical is really positive, so I would definitely recommend the show. It’s fun, while also telling a hugely important story from World War Two. It could be a relatively family friendly show, and could be appropriate for secondary school age students who are studying World War Two history.
Operation Mincemeat is a great piece of history, and it’s so nice that the story is being told to a wider audience now. While watching the show, I kept wondering what the people involved in Operation Mincemeat in World War Two would think, if they knew that their deception plot was now on stage as a musical – complete with sparkly dancing Nazis, and men/women playing women/men. I think it’s nice. I think it really shows how far we’ve come since that time, and what it was all for. It really shows the reason why it was worth fighting so hard for freedom, to be able to do things like this – and have the freedom to have a comedy musical about Operation Mincemeat. I think it’s really nice to have this important piece of history made accessible for a new audience so we never forget.
Hope you enjoyed my Operation Mincemeat the Musical theatre review! Check out my other theatre reviews for more shows in the West End, across the UK and the world.
