Brighton Year-Round 2026
Operation Mincemeat
Avalon in association with SpitLip.
Genre: Adaptation, Biographical Drama, Comedy, Costume, Historical, Mainstream Theatre, Political, Theatre
Venue: Theatre Royal, Brighton
Festival: Brighton Year-Round
Low Down
A musical about MI5, and the best British musical for a decade, even nudging off Six. SpitLip’s Operation Mincemeat arrives at Theatre Royal Brighton for the first time directed by Robert Hastie till May 30, with choreography by Jenny Arnold.
This is the finest new musical I’ve seen for many years. End of. The hype, the Oliviers and Tony call it right. See it.
Review
“Does a newt have a what?” There’s someone who really can’t get a joke right, he’s that funny! Pity it’s in the middle of a war and in a wilderness of mirrors no-one is what they seem. And though supersmooth naval intelligence officer Ian Fleming muscles his way in with his wannabe novel (“They’re so bad the bottom of the Thames is littered with Aston-Martins”), he’s soon muscled out. By a newt-lover. It’s not about Ian! But it is a musical about MI5, and the best British musical for a decade, even nudging off Six. SpitLip’s Operation Mincemeat arrives at Theatre Royal Brighton for the first time directed by Robert Hastie till May 30, with choreography by Jenny Arnold.
SpitLip mainly consists of four co-writers, three of whom went on to star in the 2019 premiere and again later: David Cumming, Natasha Hodgson, Zoe Roberts with colleague writer/performer Felix Hagan. With a five-strong cast it seemed the ideal Southwark musical when it played in their Little in 2021. But it’s been hugely amped since then, won every award going in 2024 and 2025 including one on Broadway (the longest-running since Avenue Q), and in the second act particularly, the lighting grid at the back looks like a huge West End show.
An initially bare set with costumes by Ben Stone and some props, gives on to a backdrop of curious grids. It gives small clue to how dazzling, lit by Mark Henderson, it becomes in that second act. But that’s nothing to the astonishing timing of this production. Half-second lighting cues move the climax of Act One, for instance, between a London nightclub and a dim-lit submarine.
This grows to fever-pitch in Act Two, where a flick of lighting sees not only hats but costumes switch. Clearly there’s been huge development in Operation Mincemeat, principally in the tightness, tech and stupefying timing of this show. Some of the simple strength though (seen particularly at Southwark) hasn’t been sacrificed. Gone are the days though when this might be termed that (for some of us beloved) genre a ‘Southwark Musical’.
There’s others too, the climax to Act Two with alternating American and Nazi officers on board a plane. Costume-changes flash in and off, er literally (no, no nudity, there’s no time!). Sound design by Mike Walker is tight and thankfully never over-loud in the recorded band led by Sam Sommerfeld. Everything’s crisp sonically.
The tech ratchets progressively higher and higher, as if building from simple materials and five performers it becomes ever dizzying. Another act has the Our Man (aka British intelligence officer) in Spain being called by London and tussling with a sympathetic Spanish pathologist who wants to give him back the British briefcase and London losing and finding its nerve, leading to a Keystone-Cop switch of hats routine. Arnold’s exuberant but pin-sharp choreography here and elsewhere is a key part of this extraordinary show.
The plot’s brief. The Man Who Never Was (book and film), is in essence how the British decided to dress up a dead man who no-one claimed, provided by the famous pathologist Bernard Spilsbury, famed for murder cases. They’d then provide a smorgasbord of personal documents, and drop him off Spain in a sub with a briefcase of secrets to swerve the Nazis from occupying Sicily and hive off to Sardinia instead. That’s the plan. What could possibly go wrong? And how in earth make that a comedy? The “best brains in Britain”? Really?
And did I say how memorable and witty the songs and lyrics are? Uber-smart rhymes and witty lyrics are spiced up with ostinato rhythms and a family-feel with 1940s swing and a far more modern feel. There’s parodic touches of Hamilton, there’s a smartness like Six, but these are wider-ranging, and more substantial. Numbers like ‘Born to Lead’, which is reprised; and the more reflective ‘Sail On, Boys’ a dirge in the sub, and the wild ‘Just for Tonight’ in that night club, to name three.
The five multi-role with blissful gender-fluidity. And their principle roles are all based on real people. Christian Andrews stars as chief secretary Hester Leggatt and others (like the submarine captain), who seems a confirmed “spinster” till when called upon she has two great moments. First, to work out if someone in the team is passing secrets to their known communist brother; and sing a plangent and most heart-stopping song. Normally another woman has been masterminding the fine touches of a woman’s deception. But in “Dear Bill” Hester moves deeper into her own past to write a letter to a man who died “in the middle of a war” which is “such a silly time to meet”.
Andrews is truly affecting. There’s another moment at the end of the show like this. Andrews burnishes a mesmeric middle range tenor rising to passion and it’s the lyric heart of the show, inflected with a brush of Sondheim. It’s what gives Operation Mincemeat heart behind the comedy, the knowledge that these people are real, their stories touching the tragic a well as provoking sympathetic laughter. You always laugh with the characters Well, most of them.
Morgan Phillips as the overlooked genius Charles Chomondsley (replacing Sean Carey on this occasion) is the newt-boffin comes up with Mincemeat, and is for instance that Spanish pathologist. He’s fantastic in the ‘I want’ song ‘Born to Lead’ and ‘The Pitch’ and backing int the limelight. Phillips makes a tongue-tied wannabe-newt-joker loveable, and someone you root for throughout. Phillips manages a wonderful wibbly tenor, that is, a man who continually swallows his own relevance. Beset with self-doubts, then other doubts, he’s one of three characters who unpeels.
Holly Sumpton’s over-confident detail-light Ewen Montagu is a blaze of fantastic sunshine in coloratura soprano, pushing Charles or Charlie over the line and leading the operation. There’s sympathy and volte-face behaviour, even towards the picked-up and almost tossed-aside Jean we’ll come to her). The reveals aren’t where you’d think they’d be, art of the brilliance of Mincemeat.
Jamie-Rose Monk’s Johnny Bevan (and that Our Man in Spain buffoon) with many others is pure buffo and guys Johnny as a vast naval puff of a commander. Monk’s variety though is remarkable even here, and her mezzo-to-soprano range is comedic, occasionally stratospheric.
Charlotte Hanna-Williams’ Jean Leslie is the girl from the typing pool (in one brief scene nearly everyone’s a typist) who comes up with deception after deception. A soaring soprano, Hanna-Williams’ character develops, and in duets with Phillips and with Andrews in particular, Jean’s aspirations (down to medals, though she knows it’s absurd) also pin on the point of the show. They also serve who only stand and deceive.
Hanna-Williams’ duet with Andrews in ‘Useful’ underscores the essential homage to these people. It’s Jean who comes up with a receipt for an engagement ring, and other moments of an impeccable paper trail include a photo of her; but surprisingly the love letter eludes her. Cue Hester. The epilogue too is suddenly pin-drop quiet with the truth about that man who never was; before the obligatory (and slightly guyed) glitzy finale
This is the finest new musical I’ve seen for many years. End of. The hype, the Oliviers and Tony call it right. See it.
Orchestration and Vocal Arrangement Steve Sidwell, Music Supervisor Joe Bunker, Casting Pearson Casting CDG, Tour Director Georgie Straight, Associate choreographer Paul Isiah Isles, Technical Supervisors Patrick Moloney, Chris Easton, General Management Rodeo Productions, Advertising AKA, Publicity Design Bob King Creative, Digital Marketing SINE Digital, Associate Producer Julian Matthews, Executive Producer Andrew Fell, Producers Jon Thoday, Richard Allen-Turner.
Band Musical Director Keyboard 1 Sam Sommerfeld, Deputy MD/Keyboard 2 Ella Ingram, Drums Dan Wild, Bass Guitar James Smyth.
General Manager Rosamund Cranmer, Production Co-ordinator Kailan Deadman-Spall, Resident Director David Frias-Robles, Dance Captain Christian Andrews, Company Manager Lauren Barclay, Stage Manager Sarah Ware, DSM Sophie Mason, ASMs Charlotte Acres, Eleanor Williams, Tech ASM Ryan Kyte, Head of Lighting Luca Serra, Deputy Head of Lighting Jade Hicks-Williams, Head of Sound Josh Smith, Deputy Head of Sound Matthew Layson, Head of wardrobe Roberta McKeown, Deputy Head of Wardrobe Bethan Keen, Wardrobe Assistant Lauren Allsopp, Swing Tech Nikki Tant, Adam Parkinson, Will Macleod.
