Who up mincing they meat????
Operation Mincemeat (Musical)
Briefing
Operation Mincemeat is a very silly show that is going to save theater.
Operation Mincemeat is also a WWII top-secret British intelligence plan to plant a dead body on the coast of Spain holding a briefcase detaling a fake invasion of Sardinia, to convince the Nazis to move troops out of Sicily so the allied forces could storm the beaches. And it WORKED. SOMEHOW.
It's like if Spies are forever was Come From Away. Crafted by a tight-knit team who had been creating fringe plays together for years, and it absoltely shows that this was created over a long period of time by a very dedicated group. The timing is impecable, the jokes are incredible, the characterization and physical comedy are the result of so much love and repeated experimentation. I have seen few shows that I am as impressed by the double casting (Murder for Two is another) but an attempt to follow each track in this show makes my head spin. More impressive to me than the writing or the music, the ability to swap characters on a goddam DIME is what tells this story.
It also has suuuuuuuch wonderful gender-bending in the cast. There are no gender lines even when they are playing historical characters. It's even required in the script that Ewen Montagu (a man) be played by a woman, and Hester Leggat (a woman) be played by a man, no matter how you change up the rest of the double casting. It's so fun to see them act like a true ensemble. Gender and sex are a blank slate and a good actor is able to embody any character with their particular traits and make it believable.
SPOILERS ABOUND!!!!
Going any further into the other tabs will contain spoilers!!!!
Now I strongly believe there's a place for simply silly and joyful shows, but Mincemeat has some lovely messages that catch you while the laughter has your guard down. Behind the glitz and jokes is a story about who is left out of history, the brave marginalized women and men who are left out of the narrative while cishet rich white men give each other medals and pull the ladder up behind them. The emphasis on names, identity, and memory.
Which, funnily enough, is similar to another show that opened the same 2025 Broadway season, Dead Outlaw, but I have much more to say about that one int he future! 2025 big year for corpses on Broadway (Mincemeat, Dead Outlaw, Death Becomes Her). But seriously, I think it isn't surprising we're all thinking about how we will be remembered after our deaths in such difficult times.
Quotes (funny)
Montagu: "What have you got to lose?"
Bevan: "The war."
Jean: "I’m so sorry Sir, I tried to stop him."
Montagu: "To be fair to her John she did, she gave it a damn good try! Don’t be disheartened by this, I’m impossible to reason with."
Charles: "Now, Spain is rife-"
Montagu: "It's RIFE >:)"
Charles: "-with German spies-"
Bevan: "What the hell am I doing here with an engagement ring?"
Montagu: "Asking me the question that will change our lives forever?"
Montagu: "Doesn’t understand the thrill of the wind in your hair, the fish in your... hands. What a life, eh - the open sea."
Jewel: "It’s a submarine."
Montagu: "The submerged sea."
Montagu: "We bloody DID it Charlie! Tonight, this city is ours - wonderful drinks, fantastic views, beautiful w- tables and chaaaaaiiiirs."
Quotes (heartbreaking)
Hester: "You must at least know his name? Who was he?"
Montagu: "I’ll tell you who he was, Hester, he was Major William Martin."
Douglass (Submariner): "Do we even know his name?"
Montagu: "It’s better this way, alright, no paperwork tracing him, no-body is looking for him"
Bevan: "Oh and how do you know that?!"
Montagu: "Because he doesn’t matter!"
Jean: "No statues, no plaques, no flowers for Hester and Jean?"
Hester: "I don’t think that it’s people like you or me / That the crowds come to see."
Charles: "We have fascists bashing down our door Jean and you want to start a row about some missing files!"
Jean: "Look, I know that this is scary. But... if people like us just blindly follow orders, the fascists won’t need to bash the door down Charles, they’ll have already won"
Charles: "The history books are sure men like Bill Martin won this fight / But to forget the ones behind him, well, it never seemed quite right"
Quotes (lyrics that make my brain happy)
(For full experience say these outloud quietly to yourself. Or loudly, I don't make the rules.)
Montagu: "Look up victory in the diction'ry there's a picture there of me"
Tar: "We’ll shoot him en route / Our pursuit will be fruitful / and The Fuhrer is out cold"
Charles: "Can we gather a cadaver from the local morgue?"
Hester: "Diana's piano is getting much better - well I say better, I really just mean louder, but as she tells me that's PRETTY MUCH THE SAME / Well it makes a change from all of the noise and the sirens / and sometimes from all of the silence -
With six rounds of Jingle Bells / And We Wish You A Merry Christmas even though it is June"
Montagu: "Anyway, must dash, Jean awaits me at the Ritz / but can you check if the sweatiest spy in Spain is out fooling fritz?"
Hester: "Some files are missing sir / where they've gone's not quite clear / The loss of each a serious breach / it could end my career! / their contents would fetch a high price for a proffiteer / and I'm beginning to fear someone here's not what they appear!"
Flemming: "Some crocodile moccasins / A watch with a garrotte in it / A vodka martini waiting at the bar"
Jean: "And they will find that he dined at"
All: "The hottest joints with the coolest cats"
Charles: "he’s dressed to impress,"
Jean: "wouldn’t settle for less"
Tailor: "34 round the chest"
All: "only the best for Bill!"
