★★★★★
It’s 1943, the Nazis are at the door, and all of Britain’s hopes are pinned on a floating corpse in dazzlingly inventive new musical, Operation Mincemeat. Here’s our review:
Somewhat cruelly, any review of Operation Mincemeat – the new musical making its West End debut at the Fortune Theatre this month – will inevitably mention the 2021 film based on the same subject matter. A solid, if disappointingly conventional, WWII drama about the mission which kicked off the British Secret Service, Mincemeat (the film) never seemed to live up to the wackiness of its true-story premise.
Operation Mincemeat (the musical) then, has a lot of expectations to beat on the way in. For any fans of Mincemeat (the film), and there’ll surely be some somewhere, it has a degree of reverence to the subject matter which an out-and-out comedy musical might find difficult to emulate. Anyone clued into the London theatre scene might also remember that Mincemeat (the musical) has received universally glowing reviews since it opened at the New Diorama Theatre in 2019. Following so far?
It’s a relief, then, and another kick in the teeth for the film, really, that Operation Mincemeat (for the last time, the musical) is nothing short of exceptional.
READ MORE: The Secret Life of Bees review | Sorry, the honey’s off
Inspired by the ludicrous British military operation which saw the country’s ‘finest minds’ convince the Nazis they were about to invade Sardinia instead of Sicily, the show gets a baffling amount of mileage from the mission to plant fake documents on a corpse. Operation Mincemeat is part West End musical, part farce, all performed by a cast of five multi-rolling the heck out of an already incredibly smart script.
And what a cast they are. All five bound across the stage with seemingly limitless energy, buoyed up by a show which they surely know by now is absolute dynamite. Their physical comedy chops are remarkable, alternately twisting and gurning into a series of ludicrously over-the-top characters. And when the script calls for some pathos – and despite the goofy tone, there are moments of real emotion – they all more than deliver. Add singing ability into the mix and it’s enough to convince any wannabe performer to give up and go home.
photo: Matt Crockett
There’s also an impressive variety of genres on display in the book, from the gentle lament of ‘Dear Bill’ to the hilariously poppy boy band stylings of ‘Das Übermensch.’ Beautiful use of motifs and reprisals come back in ways which are both incredibly witty and narratively satisfying. Mincemeat might just be setting a new standard for comedy musical scores.
The staging, too, runs like a well-oiled machine, as complicated physical comedy routines unfold with the effortless joy of a magic trick. One sequence involving a couple of telephones and some hats is so impressive it makes my head hurt to think of how they did it. Because despite the surface-level chaos of the production, Mincemeat has all the appearance of a show honed to perfection – not a single line, beat or movement out of place.
It seems difficult to imagine sitting through Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical and concluding anything other than that this is probably the best show on the West End right now. Deftly funny, and performed by a cast who clearly know the pure gold-vein they’ve hit upon, original musicals are so rarely this exceptional, or even this original. Almost before the curtain fell, the audience were on their feet. With any luck, that’s a sight this cast will be seeing for a long time to come.
