Interview: Robert Hastie of OPERATION MINCEMEAT at Royal Alexandra Theatre

Director Robert Hastie, the current Deputy Artistic Director of The National Theatre in London, has been sailing the award-winning musical Operation Mincemeat through many of its iterations. Beginning at a UK fringe festival, Operation Mincemeat is based on the almost unbelievably true story of the successful 1943 WWII British military deception operation of the same name. Created by the British musical theatre and comedy group SpitLip (David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts), Operation Mincemeat will soon be celebrating another victory: its Canadian premiere at the Royal Alexandra Theatre from October 27th-December 13th, 2026. 

BroadwayWorld spoke with Hastie ahead of Operation Mincemeat’s Canadian premiere to discuss the creation and impact of the record-breaking musical, and its journey from a 77-seat fringe venue to selling out large theatres with four concurrent productions around the world, largely due to its unbelievably loyal fanbase, the "Mincefluencers."

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

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How long have you been involved with Operation Mincemeat?

I can't remember the exact date. We were just coming out of the pandemic and I was taken by a friend to see this show [Operation Mincemeat] that was on in a little fringe theatre in London. He said he'd been to see it twice, maybe, already, and this friend is not easily pleased. So, I thought, Well, if he's willing to go back a third time now with me, it must be something remarkable. It was a really early version of the show but I could tell already that this was an extraordinary piece of creativity, comedy and heart. I was very fortunate to see it just as they were in the process of trying to find the director who would take the show to its next stage in development. 

What made Mincemeat's creators, SpitLip, think you were the right director for the show?

Well, I'd worked on a number of musicals as a director, both new musicals and existing classics, so that probably had something to do with it, but I did know Zoë Roberts already; we'd worked together many years ago. I mean, you'd really have to ask them. This show was very personal to them and it was very important that they found a person, and a team, who they felt was on their wavelength, understood their vision, got their sense of humour and saw what it was that they were trying to do. They'd been making comedy-horror shows that they created and directed themselves, and they were used to having a very firm control of how their shows worked, how they looked, and how they operated. So, the process of me earning their trust and getting onto the same wavelength took a moment to do right but I'm very grateful that we did because it meant that we were in a strong position as we went through the big challenges of taking it to the West End, taking it to Broadway, then taking it on tour, and each time the show shifts and grows. Hopefully by now they've decided I was the right person. 

SpitLip made their West End and later Broadway debuts with this show. What was some of the notable guidance you gave them?

It was a new experience for all of us, really, and the first time that I'd worked on Broadway. This has been a unique experience for me, working so closely with the writers whilst they're also performing their own show. I don't think I ever had kind of a bank of wisdom to impart. We all just went on this journey together and gave each other advice, criticism, encouragement, and shoulders to cry on, and it's been really a shared journey to get to where the show has got.

Did you gain a new perspective from working on this show with SpitLip?

I learned a huge amount about how to make a show like this, which is equal parts comedy, drama and musical. They're very knowledgeable and experienced in comedy. They're hugely knowledgeable about musical theatre, but this was the first time they'd attempted to make a show like this. There are lots of ways in which the show is informed by an appreciation of classic musical structure and practice, and there are other ways in which it's subtly and subversively innovative. In some ways, we were doing something that has a rule book, and in other ways we were tearing up the rule book and making it up as we went along. There's a huge amount of lessons that you learn simply by doing, and that's been really key to the journey of this show from the start. It's a show that has grown in collaboration with audiences teaching us what works, what's funny, where the humour is, where the pathos is. We're confident now that the show really works, but we never stop learning from audiences about the best way to tell this story. 

As you mentioned, Operation Mincemeat also marked your Broadway debut. Was directing a show on Broadway something you’d always dreamed of, growing up in England?

Yes, of course it was, but I grew up in a small town in the North of England and the idea of working professionally in the theatre at all was the dream. Although, obviously, going to the West End and going to Broadway are, in lots of ways, a dream come true. I've always been really excited by meeting and working with audiences, wherever they are. 

You’ve been quoted as saying “A show this funny has no business being as moving as it is!” Mincemeat tackles some dark and sensitive subject matter, but it’s described as a musical comedy. As a director, how did you look at balancing comedic elements while not diminishing or distracting from the seriousness of the events that unfold?

Well, that's something, again, that we've learned from audiences. I have to say, SpitLip's instincts for that are almost flawless. They always had such a strong vision for how the heartbreaking, intimate and personal [elements] would interweave with the storytelling and with the comedy. And they are firmly of the opinion that if you can make an audience laugh before you break their hearts, that's the ultimate goal. That's what it is to be human, isn't it? Often, the way to survive in our dark and troubling world is through laughter and music. The story itself is so absurd in places and there were such brilliant, hilarious quirks to the characters and the history, so the comedy really suggests itself. 

A lot of the pathos in it comes from the elements of the story that are about sacrifice, duty and loss, and those things really spoke to me. I feel very moved by, in particular, the characters of Jean and Hester. Obviously, "Dear Bill" is the moment where audiences realize the depth that we're going to take them to, but I find "Useful," in the second half, incredibly moving. My maternal grandmother was doing a job very much like Jean's in the Second World War in London. She was a young signaller working in the bunkers underneath Westminster during the war. Every night they would go down into the bunker to work a night shift, not knowing where the bombs would fall that night, whether they would emerge the next morning, and what they would find when they did. I find that sense of dedication, and the quiet heroism of that generation, incredibly moving. "Useful" always chokes me, thinking of what my young grandma must have felt in those days.

There were initial concerns with bringing Mincemeat to Broadway, regarding whether the humour would translate to American audiences. Are there any concerns with bringing this show to Canada, or do you feel Canadian humour is more similar to British humour?

I think Canada's impact on the world of comedy is disproportionate. It's huge. From Second City, to Lorne Michaels, to Schitt's Creek, to Martin Short. Just the sheer volume of Canadian talent that has impacted the world of comedy. All comedy kind of has some strand of Canadian DNA in it somewhere, in its influences or its genesis. Maybe that's a really bold thing to say. I think there's loads [in Mincemeat] that feels, to me, very aligned with the Canadian sense of humour. I find the Canadian sense of humour to be really in-sync with the dry, subversive, surreal sense of humour of Operation Mincemeat. 

Also, we put a line in when we took the show to Broadway. It's another really powerful moment in the second half where we wanted to stop the laughter dead in its tracks. The character Monty [Ewen Montagu] is joking around, being very over-confident about the assumed success of their operation, and he's brought up short by his commanding officer, Colonel Bevan, reminding him that this isn't just a game. The success or failure of this operation will have an enormous impact on the lives of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers. The success or failure is literally measured in the hundreds of thousands of lives that will be saved or lost, depending on how this operation fares. Monty is joking around and Bevan says, "These men's lives are not a joke." That line was always in the show, but now he goes onto say that it's not just the British, it's the Americans, Canadians, and all of the Allies who were lining up in that incredible moment in world history, that turning point in the 20th century, where the democratic world was standing shoulder to shoulder to face down the existential threat to freedom and to a democratic way of life. The commitment of Canadian troops and the Canadian people in that moment, alongside Great Britain, the USA and all of the Allies, is something that we feel is really important to acknowledge in this piece of work.

Is this your first time working on a production that’s making its Canadian premiere?

It is! I'm so excited. I'm a huge fan of Canadian theatre and I've been seeing theatre in Canada since I was 18. Whenever I'm visiting Canada, I always make sure I go and see something in Toronto, or at Stratford or Shaw. I've been to theatre in Calgary, in Edmonton, in Vancouver, and in Montréal. It's been a dream for a long time to have a show that reaches a Canadian audience, on Canadian soil. So yes, I am thrilled.

There are currently 4 productions of Operation Mincemeat happening at the same time: West End, Broadway, UK Tour and North American Tour. Could you talk a bit about your associates, and the people keeping Mincemeat running across each of these productions?

Yes, we have a wonderful team with associates across all of the productions. The creative team has been very close, from the original production. It's something that we feel very proud of and feel very connected to. The associate director of the North American tour, Georgie Staight, has been with the show from the original West End production, so she's been a key part of the journey of this show. It's a show that really does attract brilliant talent and inspire loyalty wherever we go. 

What are some of the challenges with staging the production in very large theatres? How do you maintain the nature of such an intimate show?

I think one of the key creative decisions that we all took early on was that the heart of the show is the relationship those five actors have with each other and with the audience. There's something really essential in preserving the effort that those five performers are engaged in. I feel that one of the keys to the show's success is that the form and content match each other really well. In the narrative, you've got this group of misfits and oddballs who have to work together, despite their differences, to do this almost impossibly huge thing of winning the Second World War with this bonkers scheme. And we're telling that with five people and minimal hats and props. In the show, you've got five people playing parts for which they're, you know, the wrong age, the wrong gender, the wrong ethnicity, and somehow they've got to tell the story of how the Allies won the Second World War. So, I think when the characters pull it off and succeed against the odds, you're moved by that, because you've also witnessed the five actors succeed in their impossible task at the same time, of somehow telling this story with 87 different characters between five of them, a minimal set and costumes. 

We thought that it was a big step up to go from our fringe venue to the Fortune Theatre which is half the size of the Golden Theatre on Broadway. And, when the show opened in Providence, Rhode Island last month, that theatre is nearly three times the size of the Golden Theatre. So, at every point this show has jumped exponentially in terms of the size of the audience that it's meeting each night. We've had to make big decisions about whether to expand, and at every point we've held onto that core belief that it's got to feel like a gang of five mates making it up as they go along, which is sort of what it was when they first made it, and that core principle of a gang pulling off this impossible task against the odds. What it turns out, we've discovered, as we've been to bigger theatres around North America and around the UK, is that, actually, it really works. The scale of the show does not diminish with the size of the auditorium. The story is big enough, the music is great enough, the comedy is funny enough, and the beating heart is strong enough that, in my experience so far, anyway, it's managed to thrill audiences, even when they're in the thousands rather than hundreds.

I think it's fair to say that Operation Mincemeat is a show that has largely succeeded based on positive word of mouth and its dedicated fans, the Mincefluencers. Do you have anything you’d like to say to Mincemeat's loyal fans?

Thank you. If it's down, it's down together. If it's up, it's up as one. If you're a Mincefluencer, you'll know what I'm talking about. 

Many fans have seen the show dozens of times, some over one hundred times, and sometimes in multiple cities. A big part of that is due to the cast and, specifically, the understudies, who are kind of uncommonly celebrated, so much so, that people run to the box office when they learn an understudy will be going on. How involved are you in the casting process, and what about this current cast particularly stands out?

I'm very involved. We've all stayed very involved, and it's very important to us that audiences everywhere are getting the very best cast that we can put together. Fortunately, because of the strength of the show, we've had no problem attracting terrific talent to work on the show. And you're right, we've been so fortunate in the quality of the actors who've signed up to be in it, everywhere it's been, and all through its history. We try not to think of it really as having a principal cast and an understudy cast. Of course, that's the way that the show operates and the way all shows operate, but, really, we try to think of it as one company of actors because the trust between those five performers on stage needs to be so rock solid. They are operating at such high speed and they depend on each other. You know, if your colleagues on stage aren't there ready with the hat that they're subtly passing you, or the prop that they're meant to take to you, or the telephone that they're meant to hand you at exactly the right point... If they haven't got each other's backs as an ensemble, the show won't work. It'll grind to a halt. Again, that comes from the very first company being such close collaborators and friends, that sense of teamwork is stitched into the way the show operates. I think that's also one of the reasons why it's so enjoyable to watch and why it's been so successful. 

Fans of the show also uncovered key details about the real Hester Leggatt [portrayed by Luke Antony Neville in the North American tour] that were unrecognized due to the misspelling of her surname. In December 2023, a plaque was installed at the Fortune Theatre in her honour, and a book, Finding Hester, was written about her story. What does that mean to you, to have a show you’ve been a part of make such an impact on people’s lives?

Oh, it's really wonderful. Again, I'm going to go back to that song "Useful," which is all about the dignity of doing a job well, even when you know you're not going to get the credit for it, or you're not going to get the fame for it. And not just doing a job, but saving the world, when you know there's not going to be a parade, or a medal, or a commemorative plaque. Well, it chokes me up just thinking about it, actually, the fact that we've been able, in some small way, to acknowledge the dignity and repay that heroism. Hester now, literally, has a commemorative plaque at the Fortune Theatre in London. Every night, these women, who were resigned to the fact that their names would never be known for the incredible things they did, the fact that we're saying their names every night. And today, in four different theatres across two continents, we'll be telling the world the story of these incredible women and incredible people whose work and sacrifice was so decisive at the turning point of the Second World War. I think that's the thing that we're proudest of. 

An expanded cast version of Operation Mincemeat was recently licensed for performers aged 19 and under. How does it feel knowing that young performers will be taking on this show?

I cannot wait to see a high school production in which every single one of the parts is played by a different young performer. Young people making and enjoying theatre is what ensures the future of life performance, and I don't think it's too crazy to say that engaging young people in the arts is one of the best ways to ensure that civilization continues.

Do you have any advice for future Mincemeat directors?

I would say trust the writing. Although every cast brings something unique to the show, these songs and scenes have been honed by absolutely brilliant comedians. So, all the ingredients to make a great show are already there in the writing. That's a gift to me as a director. That's such a gift, knowing that you can put such faith in the material to delight audiences. It's what has allowed this show, that was performed by its creators, to now be performed by multiple casts so brilliantly across the world, because they [SpitLip] made this show with such love, care and talent. They were very relieved to discover they didn't have to do it [perform the show] themselves forever, and that they could eventually hand it on because the script is so strong. So, trust the script and have fun. It's been the most enjoyable ride to work on this show. It's been an absolute career highlight and something I'll never forget. 

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Operation Mincemeat will be in performances at Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre from October 27th-December 13th, as part of Mirvish Productions' 2026/2027 season.