The best of theater in 2023

“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

#1 2023 Theatre Show

“Despite all that Hollywood firepower, my top pick was a homegrown musical about the UK’s role in World War II”

Sarah Rappaport, Bloomberg

“Is the quite splendid “Operation Mincemeat” ridiculously clever or cleverly ridiculous? Both…this is the musical you didn’t know you needed”

David Benedict, Variety

“My far-and-away favorite production—and a complete surprise to me—was the musical “Operation Mincemeat… a comedy that has been cheerfully dismantling jingoism builds a stirring vision of real fellowship in its place.”

Helen Shaw, The New Yorker

“the feel-good West End musical of the summer… The reviews for the show have been ecstatic… the overwhelming impression is of hopefulness, expansiveness, possibility and joy.”

Alexis Soloski, The New York Times

74 ★★★★★ reviews and counting

Tuesday 1^st October – The Olivier Award®-winning ‘Best New Musical’ Operation Mincemeat, created by a quartet of young British creatives, will open on Broadway at the Golden Theatre – its first musical since the Tony Award® Triple Crown winner Avenue Q – on 20^th March 2025. From 15^th February, when previews begin on Broadway, Operation Mincemeat will run simultaneously in New York and London, with the West End’s Fortune Theatre recently receiving an incredible 10^th extension from ATG through 8^th March.

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 74 five-star reviews and counting, and has become the ‘Best reviewed show in West End history.’

The decision to write the musical was the last roll of the dice after years of performing sketch shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and echoes the journey of Beyond the Fringe from the world-famous quartet Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller, and Dudley Moore, which premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1960, before moving to the Fortune Theatre and later to the Golden in 1962.

Casting, ticket prices and show times to be announced.

SpitLip – David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts – the musical’s writers and composers, said: “If we had to name one single unifying influence for Operation Mincemeat, it would be American Musical Comedy. The Producers, Guys and Dolls, Wicked, Avenue Q, The Book Of Mormon – we never dreamed we would even get to go see shows like these on Broadway, let alone open our show alongside them. Thank you to our fans, and particularly those in the US for getting Operation Mincemeat here. If it gets hounded out of Broadway after one night, it will still be beyond our wildest dreams. Our producers, we’d imagine, would be less pleased.”

The Broadway announcement comes on the heels of the musical’s West End American audience growing from 2% in 2023, to now reaching 14%.

Broadway tickets will go on General sale on 20^th November. Sign up here for priority access to a fan pre-sale on 18^th November. Tickets for the West End’s Fortune Theatre run until 8^th March 2025 are available only from the Official Box Office here.

We interrupt this transmission to bring you some brilliantly important and glitzy news!!! 🎉✨🗽 @mincemeatbway pic.twitter.com/1JPqlos1FA

— Operation Mincemeat (@mincemeatlive) October 1, 2024

The year is 1943 and we’re losing the war. Luckily, we’re about to gamble all our futures on a stolen corpse.

Singin’ in the Rain meets Strangers on a Train, Noel Coward meets Noel Fielding, Operation Mincemeat is the fast-paced, hilarious and unbelievable true story of the twisted secret mission that won us World War II. The question is, how did a well-dressed corpse wrong-foot Hitler?

The production is directed by 2023 Olivier Award® nominated  Robert Hastie (Standing at the Sky’s Edge, National Theatre – 2023 Best New Musical Olivier Award® winner), following providing directorial support for the Riverside Studios run, while Olivier Award® nominated Jenny Arnold (Jerry Springer: The Opera, National Theatre) continues as Choreographer. Also from Standing at the Sky’s Edge at the National Theatre on the creative team are: 2023 Olivier Award® nominated  Ben Stones (Sylvia, The Old Vic) as Set and Costume Designer, Tony Award, six-time Olivier Award® and Bafta Award® winning Mark Henderson (Girl From the North Country, Broadway & Noël Coward Theatre) as Lighting Designer and Olivier Award® winning Mike Walker (Jerry Springer: The Opera, National Theatre) as Sound Designer.  Grammy Award® winning and Tony®, Emmy® & 2024 ‘Outstanding Musical Contribution’ Olivier Award® nominated Steve Sidwell (Beautiful: The Musical, Broadway & Aldwych Theatre) is Orchestrator and Vocal Arranger, while 2024 ‘Outstanding Musical Contribution’ Olivier Award® nominated Joe Bunker is Musical Director. Georgie Staight is Associate Director and Paul Isaiah Isles is Associate Choreographer. Casting is by Pearson Casting. The extraordinary debut musical is written and composed by SpitLip – David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts.

Operation Mincemeat won the 2024 ‘Best New Musical’ and ‘Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical’ Olivier Awards®, following receiving six nominations. These awards trail winning the 2024 ‘Best New Musical’ WhatsOnStage Award and the ‘Best West End Show’, ‘Rising Star’ and ‘Best Understudy’ West End Wilma Awards. Previously on the show’s journey, Operation Mincemeat has picked up the Off-West End award for ‘Best Musical Production’ and ‘Best Company Ensemble’ and The Stage Debut Award for ‘Best Composer/Lyricist’.

Operation Mincemeat is produced in the West End and 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 15^th February 2025, Operation Mincemeat will begin previewing at the Golden Theatre on Broadway, following the Tony Award-winning play Stereophonic.
• On 16^th September, ATG granted Operation Mincemeat at the West End’s Fortune Theatre, originally slated for an eight-week run, an incredible tenth extension through 8^th  March 2025.
• To date, Operation Mincemeat has sold over 300, 000 tickets on the West End and a record-breaking fan has attended over 140 times.
• On 14^th June 2024, a survey of Americans who have seen Operation Mincemeat revealed that 90.2% believe the show is not “too British” for Broadway.
• On 13^th May, Operation Mincemeat entered its second year in London with a debut performance of the new cast, Emily Barber, Seán Carey, Chlöe Hart, Christian Andrews and Claire-Marie Hall , with George Jennings and Jonty Peach joining Holly Sumpton and Geri Allen to form the Company. The original Principal cast comprised of David Cumming, Claire-Marie Hall, Natasha Hodgson, Jak Malone and Zoë Roberts.
• On 14^th April 2024, Operation Mincemeat won ‘Best New Musical’ and ‘Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical’ Olivier Awards®.
• On 4^th April 2024, Concord Theatricals announced it secured from Avalon exclusive worldwide secondary licensing rights to Operation Mincemeat.
• On 8^th March 2024, Sony Music released a limited-edition 7″ ‘Dear Bill’ vinyl featuring Jak Malone, who portrayed Hester Leggatt on-stage, to coincide with International Women’s Day.
• On 26^th January 2024, after years of campaigning on social media, Colin Firth, star of the Operation Mincemeat film, watched the musical.
• On 11^th 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.