Photo: roses thrown for Operation Mincemeat World Tour first preview at Lowry Salford, photo credit: Phil Tragen

WITH STOPS IN NEW DESTINATIONS INCLUDING LIVERPOOL, DUBLIN, BELFAST, LEICESTER AND MORE

“It’s not just the best musical I’ve ever seen; it’s the most rewarding theatrical experience I’ve ever had”
Taffy Brodesser-Akner, The New York Times

“A little show with a very big future”
David Benedict, Variety

“One of British theatre’s great success stories… both spiffingly funny, in a Monty Python-esque fashion, and really quite moving”
Hugh Montgomery, Metro

“the perfect mix of ingenious, silly and moving… the Olivier Award-winning musical about the wartime operation is as terrific as ever” ★★★★★
Marianka Swain, The Telegraph

“A miraculous musical that tells the entire story in a kind of accelerated farce that is part Mel Brooks, part SIX, part Hamilton with a side order of One Man, Two Guvnors” ★★★★★
Neil Norman, The Daily Mirror

“The Brits have made the year’s funniest musical…Against the odds, the “Operation Mincemeat” gang has found its way to the big time”
Peter Marks, The Washington Post

181 ★★★★★ reviews and counting

14th September – Following 290,000 tickets sold and over 20 weeks of sold-out shows so far, the Tony® and double Olivier Award®-winning hit musical Operation Mincemeat announces an extension to the UK leg of its world tour due to phenomenal demand.

The tour began with two sold-out weeks at the 1700-seater Lowry in Salford, playing to its largest audiences yet at the theatre that first encouraged Tony and Olivier Award®-nominated writers SpitLip to create their extraordinary debut musical, and will culminate on the 28^th November after 304 performances across its first leg.

Along the way, the tour has welcomed Joseph Kavanaugh, who has now seen the production over 100 times after winning one of five Golden Tickets issued to celebrate Operation Mincemeat selling its one millionth ticket earlier this year, giving him free, unlimited access to the musical anytime, anywhere in the world, for life.

The second leg kicks off in Dartford on the 23^rd February 2027, touring for 36 weeks and taking in new destinations including Belfast and Dublin, as well as Liverpool, Blackpool and Leicester and more, alongside a return to the Lowry for two weeks.

The news comes as the world tour continues its global journey, with the North American leg launching on the 20^th  September at the Providence Performing Arts Center, Rhode Island, before travelling on to Australia, China, Mexico and New Zealand, spanning four continents. Alongside the world tour, Operation Mincemeat continues its West End run at the Fortune Theatre, with its recently announced 19^th extension taking the production through to 29^th May 2027 and into its fifth year, while the Broadway production at the Golden Theatre, following its 10^th extension announced today through to 14^th March 2027, enters its third year.

Tickets for the UK leg extension go on pre-sale at 10am on Wednesday 23^rd September with general sale starting at 10am on Friday 25^th September. For full details and tickets, visit operationmincemeat.com/tour

The year is 1943 and we’re losing the war. Luckily, we’re about to gamble all our futures on a stolen corpse. Operation Mincemeat is the fast-paced, hilarious and unbelievable true story of the twisted secret mission that won the Allies World War II. The question is, how did a well dressed corpse wrong-foot Hitler?

Operation Mincemeat began as a tiny (and tiny-budgeted) production at the London Fringe New Diorama Theatre in 2019. The show quickly gained a devoted following, spurring sold-out runs at venues including Southwark Playhouse and Riverside Studios. It finally premiered in the West End on 9^th May 2023 at the Fortune Theatre, where it won the Olivier and WhatsOnstage Awards® for ‘Best New Musical’, alongside garnering 181 five-star reviews and counting, and has become the ‘Best reviewed show in West End history’. Operation Mincemeat is written by Triple Tony Award® nominees SpitLip (David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts) and directed by Deputy Artistic Director at the National Theatre Olivier Award nominated Robert Hastie (Standing at the Sky’s Edge, National Theatre – 2023 Best New Musical Olivier Award winner).

Since premiering at the 77-seater New Diorama Theatre in London in 2019, Operation Mincemeat has been nominated for 68 awards and won 24, including four for Best Musical from the Olivier Awards®, WhatsOnStage Awards, BroadwayWorld Theater Fans’ Choice Awards, and off-West End Awards. The Broadway production was nominated for four Tony Awards®, including Best Musical, and won Best Featured Actor in a Musical.

Operation Mincemeat is produced in the West End, on tour, and on Broadway by Avalon (in association with SpitLip). The show was commissioned by New Diorama Theatre, co-commissioned by The Lowry, and also supported by the Rhinebeck Writers Retreat.

Notes To Editors

• On 9^th September 2026, it was announced by Concord Theatricals that a full-length adaptation Operation Mincemeat is available as Operation Mincemeat: The Expanded Cast for performance by casts aged under 19 years old in the UK and Eire, featuring companies of up to 87 actors.
• Operation Mincemeat kicks off the North American leg of its world tour at the Providence Performing Arts Center in Providence, Rhode Island, on 20th September, with further stops including Chicago, Boston, Toronto, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
• On 27th February 2026, Operation Mincemeat sold its 1 millionth ticket and gave out 5 Golden tickets to celebrate, awarding 5 lucky people free, unlimited access to Operation Mincemeat, anytime, anywhere in the world, for life.
• On 22^nd February 2026, after playing more than 1,000 performances since its inception, the original British cast, Olivier Award® Winners and Tony Award® Nominees David Cumming, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts, Tony Award® winner Jak Malone, and Claire-Marie Hall will play their final Broadway performance ahead of handing over to an all-American cast.
• On 16^th February 2026, the Operation Mincemeat World Tour began at Lowry, Salford.
• On 12^th December 2025, Operation Mincemeat became the longest-running musical at Broadway’s Golden Theatre since Avenue, upon reaching its 306th performance.
• On 29^th August 2025, Operation Mincemeat celebrated 1000 shows in the West End at the Fortune Theatre.
• Operation Mincemeat has sold over 400,000 tickets in the West End.
• The Queen, Robert de Niro, Colin Firth, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Neil Patrick Harris, Alex Horne, Greg Davies, Reece Shearsmith, Alan Carr, Sir Ian McKellen, Frank Skinner, Daisy Ridley are among the Mincemeat West End Alumni.
• Steven Speilberg, Cynthia Erivo, Lin Manuel Miranda, Bette Midler, Daniel Radcliffe, Jesse Eisenberg, Samuel L Jackson Josh Gad, Ariana DeBose are among the Mincemeat Broadway alumni.
• On 13^th May 2025, it was announced at the entrance to the United Nations in New York City that Operation Mincemeat is launching a global tour.
• On 1^st May 2025, it was announced that Operation Mincemeat received four Tony Award® nominations – Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score (music and lyrics) Written for the Theatre and Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical. Jak Malone won the Tony® for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, having previously taken home the Olivier Award® for the same role in 2024.
• On 17^th  April 2025, a survey from Operation Mincemeat was sent out asking for real historical connections fans of the show may have to the real World War II operation, responses from fans poured in with many identifying relatives that were part of the Sicily invasion that Operation Mincemeat ultimately led to, fans who would not exist if it weren’t for the operation.
• On 16^th February 2025, 300 Mincefluencers flew to New York to surprise the cast of Operation Mincemeat on Broadway with a special rendition of ‘Sail On, Boys’, resulting in a blockage on 45^th street.
•  On 15^th February 2025, previews for Operation Mincemeat on Broadway began at the Golden Theatre.
• On 1^st October 2024, it was announced that Operation Mincemeat, will open on Broadway at the Golden Theatre – its first musical since the Tony Award® Triple Crown winner Avenue Q – on 20th March 2025.
• On 1st November 2024, it was announced that the original cast featuring David Cuming, Claire-Marie Hall, Natasha Hodgson, Olivier Award®-winner Jak Malone, and Zoë Roberts, will reprise their acclaimed roles on Broadway.
• On 14th June 2024, a survey of Americans who have seen Operation Mincemeat revealed that 90.2% believe the show is not “too British” for Broadway.
• The West End’s American audience for Operation Mincemeat has grown from 2% in 2023, to now reaching 14%.
• A record-breaking fan has attended over 213 times.
• On 14th April 2024, Operation Mincemeat won Best New Musical and Jak Malone won Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical Olivier Awards®.
• On 4th April, 2024 Concord Theatricals announced it secured from Avalon exclusive worldwide secondary licensing rights to Operation Mincemeat.
• On 8th March 2024, Sony Music released a limited-edition 7″ ‘Dear Bill’ vinyl featuring Jak Malone, who originally portrayed Hester Leggatt on-stage, to coincide with International Women’s Day.
• On 26th January 2024, after years of campaigning on social media, Colin Firth, star of the Operation Mincemeat film, watched the musical.
• On 11th December 2023, a plaque in honour of Hester Leggatt was unveiled at the Fortune Theatre.
• In Autumn 2023, Reece Shearsmith, Frank Skinner and Rosie Jones hosted post-show Q&As.
• In August 2023, following #OperationInterestingMan starting to mysteriously appear on X/Twitter over the Bank Holiday weekend, over 80 Mincefluencers surprised a performance in costumes from every different character in the musical. In total, the five person multi rolling cast play 32 characters.
• In August 2023, a decision to ban the posters for Operation Mincemeat on the London Underground was reversed by Transport for London.
• In August 2023, MI5 officially confirmed the identity of Hester Leggatt.
•  In July 2023, the musical’s fandom, referred to as Mincefluencers, tracked down previously unearthed records for Hester Leggatt, the head of the MI5 secretarial division, who helped turn the tide of history. More information here.
• In June 2023, Sony Masterworks Broadway picked up the Original Cast Recording digitally and on CD in the United States.
• In May 2023, to celebrate the West End premiere, Sony Music released the full Original London Cast Recording on CD, vinyl, streaming and digital. Listen here. To date, the tracks have been streamed over 2 million times worldwide.
• After five sold-out development runs at the New Diorama Theatre in 2019 and Southwark Playhouse in 2020, 2021 & 2022, plus an extended Riverside Studios run last summer, Operation Mincemeat began previews in the West End in March 2023.
• The last musical produced by Jon Thoday for Avalon, Jerry Springer: The Opera, led to a prosecution for blasphemy. So far, Operation Mincemeat seems to be heading towards a happier conclusion.
• The idea of the musical came through Natasha Hodgson’s brother pointing SpitLip towards an episode of the Stuff You Should Know podcast about Operation Mincemeat.
• The show is currently featured in the V&A’s Re:Imagining Musicals display, exploring how musicals have continuously reimagined, reinvented and reinterpreted themselves over time.
• Other adaptations of Operation Mincemeat include: –
  Operation Heartbreak (book, 1950) by Duff Cooper, former Cabinet Minister of Information
  The Man Who Never Was (book, 1953) by Ewan Montagu
  The Man Who Never Was (film, 1956) based on the book by Ewan Montagu
  Operation Mincemeat (book, 2010) by Ben MacIntyre
  Operation Mincemeat (film, 2022) starring Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen
• Top secret’ documents found on the aforementioned stolen body, include the receipt for a diamond ring from the legendary London jeweller, S J Phillips and theatre tickets from the West End’s Prince of Wales Theatre, currently housing The Book of Mormon.

OPERATION MINCEMEAT WORLD TOUR – UK LEG EXTENSION, TOUR DATES

Dartford, The Orchard Theatre: 23rd – 27^th February

Milton Keynes, Milton Keynes Theatre: 2^nd – 6^th March

Bath, Theatre Royal: 9^th – 20^th March

Cheltenham, Everyman Theatre: 23^rd March – 27^th March

Sunderland, Sunderland Empire Theatre: 6^th – 10^th April

Darlington, Darlington Hippodrome: 20^th – 24^th April

Brighton, Theatre Royal: 27^th April – 1^st May

Salford, Lowry: 11^th – 22^nd May

Truro, Hall for Cornwall: 1^st – 5^th June

Portsmouth, Kings Theatre: 8^th – 12^th June

Blackpool, The Grand Theatre: 15^th – 19^th June

Inverness, Eden Court: 22^nd – 26^th June

Edinburgh, King’s Theatre: 29^th June – 3^rd July

Glasgow, Theatre Royal: 6^th – 10^th July

Oxford, New Theatre: 13^th – 17^th July

Aylesbury, Waterside Theatre: 20^th – 24^th July

Nottingham, Theatre Royal: 27^th – 31^st July

Leeds, Grand Theatre: 3^rd – 7^th August

Belfast, Grand Opera House: 10^th – 14^th August

Dublin: 17^th – 21^st August

Birmingham, The Alexandra: 24^th – 28^th August

Cardiff, New Theatre Cardiff: 14^th – 18^th September

Woking, Woking Theatre: 21^st – 25^th September

York, Grand Opera House: 28^th September – 2^nd October

Liverpool, Liverpool Empire: 5^th – 9^th October

Coventry, Belgrade Theatre: 12^th – 16^th October

Leicester, Curve Theatre: 19^th – 23^rd October

Sheffield, Lyceum Theatre: 26^th – 30^th October

Cambridge, The Arts Theatre Cambridge: 2^nd – 6^th November

Bradford, Alhambra Theatre: 9^th – 13^th November

Southampton, Mayflower Theatre: 16^th – 20^th November