Last night I had the pleasure to be invited along to the always wonderful Leeds Grand Theatre to review the latest leg of the UK tour of “Operation Mincemeat”. I was very much looking forward to this one, I’m a massive World War 2 history buff and I have always found the story of “Major William Martin” fascinating but didn’t know too much about some of the background players in the story so this was definitely right up my street. My only holdup going into it was how it was going to translate as a musical and now seeing the program littered with ex members of Mischief Theatre I have to say… it translates perfectly.
The plot follows a struggling MI5 trying to come up with a plan to invade Sicily. We see various plans to kill Hitler thrown out until an unbecoming scientist pitches “Operation Mincemeat”, a plan to dress up a corpse as an air force Major, crash his corpse into the sea off Spain and hand the Nazis the plans to invade… Sardinia! Hence Hitler would move his troops out of the way and the Allies would all be welcomed in for a nice cup of tea. Of course it didn’t go that smoothly but that is what the show is all about so I won’t spoil it! We have a core group of 5 actors playing all the roles and I have to say they are all absolute masters of their craft.
Christian Andrews was my personal highlight in the role of “Hester Leggatt and others”. Andrew’s is absolutely superb in this role, with a poise and presence perfectly filling the role of this powerful woman. Andrews delivered the standout solo of the night with “Dear Bill” which had my partner in floods of tears but was equally impressive in the guise of the dastardly doctor. Seán Carey was hilarious as the brains of the operation “Charlie Cholmondeley”. His physical comedy and enormous energy were astounding and his delivery of the newt lines… chef’s kiss!
Holly Sumpton was sublime as “Ewen Montagu”, more than capable of keeping up with Carey and Andrews on the comedic front but also surprising me with some of the more serious and gripping moments in the show. Charlotte Hanna-Williams was strong as Jean Leslie, providing a brilliant young energy to her role and really making you root for the character. Jamie-Rose Monk was great as “Johnny Bevan”, although my actual highlight from her performance was when she was portraying the brilliantly incompetent agent in Spain. Monk has really mastered the difficult act of an obviously intelligent person playing dumb… bravo!
In terms of production aspects the lighting and sound were both strong, the band was crisp and the costumes were fabulously garish at times. I also particularly liked the set with its various hidden door and windows popping up out of nowhere, making for some hilarious surprises.
Overall I could not recommend Operation Mincemeat in a higher regard, this is a show that will keep you engaged all the way to the very end, laughing and crying until you can’t laugh or cry any more.
Until Saturday 12th September, https://leedsheritagetheatres.com/
Reviewer: Adam Craddock
Reviewed: 8th September 2026
North West End UK Rating: