Review: Operation Mincemeat brings frantic fun to Milton Keynes Theatre
Operation Mincemeat The Musical invades Milton Keynes Theatre this week and tells the improbable, but true, story of how Allied Forces dealt Hitler a massive wartime blow through a daring mission of deception.
It’s 1943, and the Germans have the upper hand in the fighting. The “muscle men” on the ground are struggling, so the government calls on “masters of deceit” MI5 who are tasked with coming up with new tactics that can turn the tide of WWII.
They need a plan for invading the island of Sicily. It’s heavily defended by Nazi troops so the aim is to fool them into believing British priorities lie elsewhere, namely Sardinia, so enemy soldiers are redeployed.
The musical opens with MI5 staff keen to impress Colonel Johnny Bevan (Jamie-Rose Monk). They're all desperate to be the first in his office with their plans to get one over on the Germans.
One by one their proposals are dismissed however, leaving only the nervous Charles Cholmondeley (Seán Carey) who lacks the confidence to put his own idea forward.
Confidence is not something Ewen Montagu (Holly Sumpton) lacks and she eventually pushes him into presenting his masterplan – introducing it to his superior as not another half-arsed idea, but a whole arsed one!
After hearing the wacky suggestion of finding a dead body and chaining a briefcase to it containing fake papers designed to mislead the enemy over Allied intentions, he’s not impressed.
But under pressure, Bevan goes along with it as options are fast running out. What have they got to lose? Well, the war!
I saw the 2022 movie with Colin Firth and to be honest the two-hour run time felt more like four in what was an extremely dialogue heavy film which required a heck of a lot of concentration – and ultimately dragged.
You couldn’t accuse the stage version of being slow paced though. I came out of the theatre feeling exhausted such was the frantic action which rarely let up from minute one.
The five strong cast (Christian Andrews as Hester Leggatt and Charlotte Hanna-Williams as Jean Leslie make up the rest of the quintet) must have been out on their feet by the time the curtain fell.
As well as their main characters, they each had countless supporting roles to play and often very little time to alter their appearance or grab a prop to make the transition.
The scene changes were literally split-second at times and left me watching on in impressed disbelief. One example saw a subtle tweak of costumes and lighting and we’d gone from dancing in a club to a submarine in a blink of an eye.
While the show was inventive, amusing and featured characters that were extremely likeable, it wasn't a complete victory for Operation Mincemeat.
At times it seemed just a litle too chaotic, some songs maybe went on a little too long, and I had regular difficulty in picking up the lyrics mainly due to the music volume.
Operation Mincemeat is proof that fact can be stranger than fiction. Why not make it your mission to get along to Milton Keynes Theatre before its run ends on Saturday June 13. Tickets are available now via ATGTICKETS.COM/MiltonKeynes.