Operation Mincemeat – Grand Opera House York

Book, Music and Lyrics: Dave Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, Zoe Roberts

Director: Robert Hastie

Back in the 1950s a film called The Man Who Never Was cast supposedly historical light on one of the most unlikely events of World War Two. The same events, Operation Mincemeat, are now the basis for a film and astonishingly successful musical. Amazingly both the 1950s film, earnest and at times mysterious, and the current musical, zany and wonderfully inventive, stick fairly closely to the historical events.

In 1943 the Allies were looking to invade Sicily; the Germans were aware that an invasion was imminent, but not where it would come. What could be simpler than to load a dead body with papers pointing to an invasion of Sardinia and have it washed ashore in Spain where the Germans would recover it and redirect troops from Sicily to Sardinia? Less simple was to convince the Germans that this was a British officer, Major William Martin, “the man who never was”, not only creating his military documentation, but inventing material relating to his fiancee – love letters and all. Finding a suitable body was no picnic either!

The scheme was initially floated by Charles Cholmondeley, seconded from flight duty because of poor eyesight, and taken up by Ewen Montagu in Naval Intelligence – and, incidentally, the author of the book on which the 1950s film was based. This film omitted one important element: Charles Cholmondeley, still on the secret list at the time!

The musical focuses on five characters: Montagu, Cholmondeley, head of section John Bevan, Jean Leslie, the clerk who became Martin’s “fiancee” and Hester Leggatt, a senior secretary who wrote the all too convincing love letters. Apart from this, the “others” played by each of the five supremely talented and energetic actors include seamen, Nazis, Spanish officials, film crews – and Ian Fleming, always on about that silly novel of his!

The opening sets the tone for the whole enterprise, the MI5 boys in a glorious song and dance, Born to Lead, then concentrating on Charles, the “bug boy” (he’s a naturalist) being shoved in stages to the back of the queue of eager would-be spies pushing to see the head of section. The atmosphere is very much that of one of our esteemed public schools and this combination of romp and serious warfare makes the first half a joyous heady treat.

Montagu is very much the bossy prefect figure in Holly Sumpton’s superb gender-switch performance, her assurance cutting through every obstacle and mostly disregarding others en route. Sean Carey as Charles is the polar opposite, shy, tongue-tied and prone to bouts of wild enthusiasm and Jamie-Rose Monk is a majestic John Bevan, rather less convincing as our man in Huelva. Charlotte Hanna-Williams is the eager and ambitious Jean Leslie and Christian Andrews manages to create real sympathy for Hester Leggatt, the initially cold senior secretary whose treatment of the song Dear Bill, one of the few restrained numbers in the piece, hints at deeper suffering.

All this culminates in an amazing first half finale where identities swirl and switch to the extent that you are convinced there are more than five people on stage. The second half is more uneven, with a rather tepid sub-plot that hints at Montagu passing secrets to his Communist brother. However, there are set pieces galore to enjoy: the briefcase and telephones episode in Spain (a flavour of Laurel and Hardy, but infinitely more complicated) and the totally amazing glitzy finale in which we barely have time to realise who the characters are before they’re someone else.

If the script is slightly less than perfect, the performance is just that – perfect! The musical arrangements, Jenny Arnold’s choreography and Robert Hastie’s direction merge into a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it whole, with astonishing performances from all five actors. And it manages to pay serious homage to those involved in the incident, including Glyndwr Michael, the homeless Welshman who became Major William Martin.

Runs until 6th June 2026, before continuing on tour