“Molly, you’ve absolutely got to see it!” That’s what my friend told me after she saw Operation Mincemeat at her local theatre earlier this year. This week, it’s at Swansea Grand Theatre as part of the UK and Ireland leg of its world tour, and I echo my friend’s thoughts: readers, you’ve absolutely got to see it!
If, like me before Monday evening, you’re not familiar with the premise, Operation Mincemeat tells the hard-to-believe-but-ultimately-extraordinary story of a 1943 British operation which deceived Nazi Germany into believing Great Britain and her allies were going to invade Sardinia, leading German troops to pull out of occupied Sicily and leaving it for the British and Allies to reclaim. While its plot is quite complicated, the operation is explained very well!
As the show is set during the Second World War, you’d be forgiven for worrying the performance could become too heavy, or fearing that, as a musical, it could poke fun at what was undoubtedly a devastating war. Fortunately, it does neither. While the show continuously knits comedy into its dialogue and musical numbers throughout its two acts, it doesn’t shy away from what was a tremendously difficult time for troops and their families across Great Britain and beyond.
Operation Mincemeat is a fairly new musical, having debuted in a small London theatre in 2019 before moving to larger theatres in London and progressing to the West End in 2023. The production made its Broadway debut in 2025 before embarking on a world tour earlier this year, and its UK and Ireland leg has now been extended until late 2027. And I’m really not surprised!
Operation Mincemeat is a very fast-paced musical and it’s clever, laugh-out-loud hilarious and, at times, surprisingly moving. The production team have done an excellent job of creating a visually dynamic and interesting MI5 office on the Swansea stage, with fantastic lighting, particularly on the back wall, and sound that really elevates the production.
Costumes are creative and the way props, especially phones, are used within the storytelling is clever and engaging. The choreography is also excellent, especially in scenes with multiple actors coming together from different directions and with different objectives.
A superbly talented cast of just five actors take on multiple roles each, sometimes within the same scene or musical number! While you might fear that seeing the same actors portray several different characters could be confusing, clever use of props, subtle costume changes (a simple pair of glasses on a chain does an awful lot of heavy lifting!) and changes in voice and demeanour help clarify exactly who you’re watching tell the tale.
Holly Sumpton shines as the bold and charismatic Lieutenant Commander Ewen Montagu, commanding the audience’s attention in every scene and impressing with her vocal range and humorous dynamic with Montagu’s apparent ‘sidekick’, Charles Cholmondeley.
A foil to Ewen Montagu, Charles Cholmondeley is a bit of a wet wipe. Scared of getting told off by his superiors, afraid of misstepping in front of his colleagues and perhaps the most by-the-book man in all of musical theatre, you expect him to fade into the background. But actor Seán Carey brings Cholmondeley into the action and makes the audience invest in him as he grows in self-confidence and begins to emerge as more than Montagu’s right-hand man. You come to see Cholmondeley as an intelligent MI5 officer who spearheaded and grew ‘Operation Mincemeat’ from a seed of an idea, but just needed some help pitching it to the MI5 chiefs.
As mentioned, each of the actors plays multiple roles, and they have got this down to a T. On Monday night, Jamie-Rose Monk particularly impressed. She played Montagu and Cholmondeley’s boss, Colonel Johnny Bevan, with charm and humour, but easily slipped into her other roles. The audience particularly enjoyed her comedic timing as Agent Haselden, a British liaison based in Spain. One particular scene, with Monk as Haselden leading three other characters through a hilarious montage of switching positions, hats and phones, is especially impressive.
While the operation itself is led by Montagu and Cholmondeley, under Colonel Bevan’s guidance, there are two other characters who play an unlikely but crucial role within the team: the tea ladies! Experienced administrative assistant and ‘tea lady’ Hester Leggatt and her extremely self-assured but altogether quite naive newbie, Jean Leslie, bring much-needed rational thinking and moments of well-placed emotion to an otherwise chaotic team of agents.
Katy Ellis played a very likeable Jean and really got the audience on her side, leaving you wishing for Jean to become a permanent fixture in Bevan’s squad, despite it being very much an old boys’ club. Her singing was particularly strong, too.
The star of the show, however, was Christian Andrews, who plays Hester Leggatt alongside several other roles. On opening night, he received a very lengthy round of applause after Hester’s beautiful solo song in Act One, as well as the loudest cheer of all the cast during the show’s closing bows at the end of Act Two.
Operation Mincemeat is unusual in that the cast and characters are often gender-swapped. When I realised this during the opening scene of the show, I did wonder whether it would seem like a gimmick and whether it would be difficult to suspend my disbelief and invest in the characters, but this simply wasn’t the case.
Through acting skill, body language, a distinctive older lady voice and glasses on a chain around his neck, Christian completely embodied older tea lady and MI5 administrative assistant Hester Leggatt, gaining the empathy and support of everyone in the audience. It’s always enjoyable to get to know a character on a deeper level over time and I enjoyed gaining insight into Hester’s life, especially in her song Dear Bill, which hit me like a brick.
Dear Bill is one of very few moments in the production that flows at a slow, steady pace, allowing you to not just hear but really listen to every line, every thought and every feeling coming from Hester. Touching lyrics are met with beautiful singing and lighting that slowly darkens, bit by bit, as the song progresses. On opening night, it was met with a lengthy round of applause, as well as sniffly noses and tears from myself and many members of the audience around me. Dear Bill is mesmerising and I’d say it’s the most meaningful and memorable song in the production.
Our one slight criticism of the show is that, at times, the dialogue can be too quick. The majority of Operation Mincemeat is incredibly fast-paced, relying on the actors’ excellent comedic timing and clever choreography to maintain audience interest and keep the story ploughing forwards. The pace keeps you engaged, but sometimes it can be difficult to follow. Some amusing one-liners don’t get the laughs they deserve as actors simply move on too quickly, and there are a few ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ moments that, unfortunately, you may well miss as the dialogue jumps around and moves on quickly.
Further, the ending is a bit random. It’s very funny and brings to life some jokes from earlier in the show, but as we haven’t had any other scenes in this particular setting, it does seem a bit arbitrary. I think I’d prefer it if the show ended in the MI5 office where our beloved team of five have been based for the majority of their story.
Ultimately, Operation Mincemeat is a fun, laugh-out-loud musical that uses humour, singing and fast-paced, engaging dialogue to teach the audience about a historic British operation, without turning their evening into a history lesson! It’s a superb show with many outstanding moments and is well worth a watch.
Operation Mincemeat at Swansea Grand Theatre runs until Saturday 26th September.
Actors vary depending on the show date. Tickets start from £33.
