God that was REALLY brilliant! : Reviewing the Cover Matinee of Operation Mincemeat

Next up on the throwback train is Operation Mincemeat, still playing on London's West End and heading for a 6 week stint on Broadway in the new year. The show continues to go from strength to strength:

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Four words: God that's REALLY brilliant

When I saw the musical back in July, I was a relatively new fan of the multi award winning musical. The Spitlip company beat my favourite musical at the time ‘The Little Big Things’ for 'Best New Musical' in May 2024.

I first listened to the musical out of spite thinking “how the hell did this win, not TLBT?” Now I understand why with 'Making a Man', 'Dear Bill' and 'Useful' living rent free in my mind daily.

​This jam packed musical tells the true story of Operation Mincemeat, described by the Spitlip team, “Singin’ in the Rain meets Strangers on a Train, Noel Coward meets Noel Fielding, 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?”

​If any of you know me well, you know I love a good cover show and the Wednesday 23rd July matinee was perfect with 2 covers (Holly Sumpton and Geri Allen) gracing the stage as Ewen Montagu, Johnny Bevan and a vast array of other characters. This combination of performers revealed on Instagram by Claire-Marie Hall (Jean and others) was the first time they performed together since the final cover rehearsal back in May 2023. A special moment for the cast and many devoted fans who dashed down to The Fortune watch this combination debut.

​One thing I noticed when the overture started, is that the music is quite quiet and isn’t in your face at full volume which for a smaller theatre I really appreciated. Another thing I should note, are the seats and views from the upper circle are almost vertical (I sat in G18 for this performance) I caught 99.9% of the show but I did spend most of it leaning forward, the experience was just as brilliant as if I was in the stalls so no negativity about the upper circle here!

The first act centres around the MI5 agents trying to figure out how to get the German soldiers from Sicily to Sardinia. The 3 main agents believe their own idea is the best whilst budding inventor Charles Cholmondley (played by Seán Carey) has a secret weapon up his sleeve but is afraid to say it. It takes Montagu’s idea to be scrapped for him to ask about Charles’ corpse-with-fake-plans idea and realise how great it really is, giving him the determination he needs to get it out there.

​The gags and one liners get more funny as the show goes on. Stand outs to me are the queuing for pitching where we first meet our cast, ‘does a newt have a…’ , meta references about the film and “it’s not like it’s a bloody musical” sent the audience erupting with laughter and applause.

The choreography by Jenny Arnold is absolutely stellar, The Pitch and the Beyoncé homage in ‘All the Ladies’ are real stand outs as well as the transition choreography when the cast have to get props and set pieces on an off stage with the quick changes

The additional reprises for multiple tracks as well as ‘Love is a Bird’ and ‘I Call Abort’ were unexpected surprises as well as the lyric changes to ‘Act as If’ and the changed key for ‘Dead in the Water’ is something I DESPERATELY NEED. The only negative thing they changed from the cast album is cutting half of ‘Sail on Boys’… so don’t get attached to the song the way I did when I first listened to it <3

Another key mention is the hilarious Bernard Spilsbury portrayed by Christian Andrews when during ‘Making a Man’ we are first introduced to this… interesting pantomime style dame with his evil sidekicks/minions. He believes that he could get a body for the mission from his… portfolio (like I said, interesting).

But do not be fooled, because the penultimate numbers of Act 1 centres around a letter the team need to write from a new fiancé back at home waiting for her soldier to return from the war to put in the body’s wallet to make it authentic. Described by herself this ‘isn’t the first war some of us have lived through’. After Charles and Jean struggle to get the tone down with the bafflingly childish ‘Love is a Bird’, Hester arrives to the rescue and begins the emotional ‘Dear Bill’ beautifully sung by again the incredible Christian Andrews, guiding Jean and Charles on how the letter should sound and be believable in the right ways and by the end of it, not a dry eye in the house

The mission is now full speed ahead with the body in tow and the whole country and weight of the war on their shoulders. They celebrate the launch of the mission with a night out on the town and Act 1 closes with suspicions that Monty isn’t just dedicated to the mission, he’s also arranging something that could have the potential to be far more sinister.

​And cue to Act 2 and the amazing opening ‘Dans Übermensch’ where everything I said about the music being quite quiet goes out of the window. This is a very in your face number with strobe everywhere and torches shining across the audience. It ended with a huge eruption of applause and in seconds the actor has had an on stage quick change to reveal Bevan, arms folded scolding “whose side are you on?” Leading to even more of an eruption of laughter.

The Ballard of Willy Watkins is another hilarious number when they find out another soldier called William has also crashed in Spain - a neutral country - and the parallels in choreography between Willy Watkins himself, Hazeldon - their representative in Spain, Charles and Monty is really innovative and hilarious to watch.

This is also the moment where Monty goes a bit too far and isn’t the nicest to Jean (putting it very politely), sending her out onto the benches now the plan is going a bit pear shaped, much to her disbelief and shame. But yet again it’s Hester to the rescue with the uplifting duet ‘Useful’ which has always been one of my favourites of the soundtrack and seeing it in person definitely made it worth the wait. Seeing the way Jean looks up to Hester and the protection Hester has over her protégé is almost a mother daughter moment, especially during one of my favourite moments:

​After a stroke of a miracle when the Germans eventually get their hands on the suitcase and begin to divert to Sicily it’s brought into 'The Glitzy Finale' which is extremely glitzy indeed. Onstage quick changes, magical reveals of the set and another quick gag when Charlie didn’t want to play the role of himself in the movie is multi-rolling genius. 

One last sombre homage was the incredible tribute to Glyndwr Micheal, the body who served as Major William Martin. This wasn’t done in character, the actors themselves were playing tribute and led to a 10 second silence. As well as the Hester plaque that was mentioned back in 'Useful' being at the bottom of the theatre as you exit.

​This show is a mix of hilarity and seriousness at the right moments but something you would want to see again and again (someone I sat next to has seen it 73 times at that point!) so please get down to the Fortune if in the UK and from the 15th Feb, The Golden Theatre in the US to catch the original West End cast in their Broadway debut for their exclusive '6 week run' but if eager fans remember their 'stint' at the Fortune was only meant to be six weeks...

And here we are, extension 12, until 7th June 2025 as of today