FIVE STARS for award-winning Operation Mincemeat as it takes the Grand Theatre by storm - review
From humble beginnings in a studio at The Lowry in Manchester, to the toast of the West End and Broadway, multi-award winning musical “Operation Mincemeat” has certainly made an impact, and this week it is the turn of the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre to host the show, writes Alison Norton.
With a string of five star reviews both from here and across the pond, I was intrigued to see this unique piece of theatre, but not really that eager, as the concept of a cast of just five performers taking on a mighty 82 roles within the show made it sound frantic, fractious and perhaps a little ambitious.
But fear not; the team of David Cumming, Natasha Hodgson, Felix Hagan and Zoe Roberts has created and written one of the slickest pieces of musical theatre you are ever likely to see.
Based on the true series of events executed during World War II, “Operation Mincemeat” was the code name for a deliberate ploy by the British to divert the emery, by placing fake documents on the corpse of an unfortunate homeless man, disguised as a fictitious British officer, Bill Martin and setting him adrift in neutral Spanish waters.
They hoped that the Germans would find the body and believe the content of the papers, which indicated that an invasion of Sicily would not be taking place after all. This mission was successful and resulted in one of the most deceptive, yet peculiar moments in military history of the era.
The five strong cast were nothing short of exceptional. Their main and recurring characters are employees of MI5 and British to a tee. With cut glass accents, stiff upper lips and all the bravado of war time secret agents, they romped their way through the show with ease.
The cast gender-swap throughout.
Christian Andrews played the female character of prim and proper Hester Leggatt with the perfect contrasting blends of comedy and emotion. His solo performance of “Dear Bill”, where he is asked to compose a letter to a loved one, was the highlight of the show for me, delivered with such feeling and sentiment that I shed a tear. Then portraying everything from an American Pilot to a body snatcher, he gave his all to each and every role.
