Review: OPERATION MINCEMEAT Is Slice of Pie

When the Broadway musical “Operation Mincemeat” opened at New York’s Golden Theatre in March 2025, it was slated to have a 16-week run. A recent 11th extension, through April 2027, was just the latest confirmation that audiences have yet to get enough of the 2025 Tony Award nominee for Best Musical.

A first-rate North American tour, being presented in a not-to-be-missed production by Broadway in Boston at the Emerson Colonial Theatre through October 24, will no doubt add to the fervent fan base – “Mincefluencers” to the uninitiated – for the show that started on the London Fringe and in the West End before moving to Broadway, where one in 50 audience members have bought tickets for multiple performances.

With book, music, and lyrics by David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, and Zoë Roberts – known as the musical comedy troupe SpitLip – the book is based on Operation Mincemeat, a real-life Second World War deception strategy involving the Allied invasion of Sardinia that took place in 1943 as a clandestine operation to reverse the downward spiral of the war. 

Pretty serious stuff for sure, but not in this terrifically imagined musical that’s part British farce and part thriller, and a welcome addition to the lexicon of classic World War II-set musicals including “The Sound of Music,” “South Pacific,” “An American in Paris,” “On the Town,” and “Cabaret.” Like these, some of “Operation Mincemeat” is historic, some is romantic, some is a combination of both – but it is also improbably and zanily hilarious, quite a feat when the subject is a not-too-distant war.

The original Broadway cast starred Hodgson, Cumming, Roberts, and Malone, who played not only the four leads but other characters as well. It is never easy to recast roles, especially when they’ve been played by the people who created the material, but the North American tour has hit the target with a very talented company including Katie Kleiger as Ewen Montagu and others, Jake Bentley Young as Charles Cholmondeley and others, Erin Ramirez as Jean Leslie and others, Mariah Copeland as Johnny Bevan and others, and Luke Antony Neville as Hester Leggatt and others.

Tall and lean Kleiger stands out as Montagu – who served alongside none other than Ian Fleming – the more attention-seeking of the pair of MI5 officers masterminding the plans, especially on act one’s “Born to Lead,” “The Pitch,” and “Just for Tonight,” on which Montagu is joined by less confident co-planner Cholmondeley. That silly strategist is a gawky delight as played by the quirky Young.

As the clerk Jean, the show’s only composite character and a representative for all women involved in the Allied Invasion, Ramirez memorably lends her clarion-clear voice to act one’s “All the Ladies” and, with Young, “Love Is a Bird.”

Copeland does fine work as military officer Johnny Bevan but suffers by comparison to Roberts, who originated the role and played it more compellingly in London and on Broadway, As Bevan’s secretary, Hester, Neville beautifully delivers the show’s most affecting solo number, act one’s “Dear Bill.” The ballad starts as a fake love letter meant to be planted on the corpse of Major William “Bill” Martin as part of the deception scheme to mislead the Nazis, but then evolves into something more intensely personal for Hester.

That song, sung with palpable emotion by Neville, brilliantly conveys that while this show is a broad musical comedy, complete with clever direction by Robert Hastie and high-kick choreography by Jenny Arnold, it’s more than that, too. It will make you laugh out loud while also feeling heart-tugging emotion for these characters.

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