In these days of delicate sensitivities when people are so easily ‘offended’, it is hard to imagine that two musicals could so brilliantly satirise the Nazi swastika and actually get away with it – Mel Brook’s The Producers did it in 2001 and now Operation Mincemeat is following suit.

But there is a difference: the former was simply outrageous, too off-the-wall for anyone to be offended, whilst this latest offering from the pens of David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoe Roberts is so intelligent, subtle and, quite frankly, brilliant, that no one would dare voice opposition to such genius!

This ‘new’ multi award winning musical, first aired at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2019 before its West End debut in 2023 and then Broadway in 2025, tells the true story of Operation Mincemeat and the elaborate plot by MI5’s ‘Twenty Committee’ to fool Hitler into making a wrong strategic decision.

And he fell for it hook, line and sinker, moving thousands of troops from Sicily to Sardinia, paving the way for allied soldiers to capture the Italian island and use it as a beachhead for the D-Day landings.

But considering that said ‘ruse’ involved dumping a dead body into the waters off Spain to fool the Germans into thinking that they had discovered the remains of a crashed pilot and with him, plans to invade Sardinia (not Sicily, if you’re still with me?), it is hard to imagine that the four writers could somehow turn this into 21st century 'musical' entertainment gold.

But they have and this mince is now top dollar sirloin steak worthy of any cordon bleu chef’s kitchen!

Robert Hastie’s direction and Jenny Arnold’s choreography are just magnificent and, somehow, echo flavours of Book of Mormon and Hamilton with a whiff of One Man, Two Guvnors thrown in for good measure: chaotic, exacting and requiring of split-second timing.

And when it is so perfect, as this five hander was, it is because it has not only been directed to within an inch of its life, but is also well rehearsed; and it shows.

There were no celebs, just five brilliant actors: the multi-talented Sean Carey as Charles Cholmondeley, Holly Sumpton as Ewen Montagu – a true all-rounder and stage anchor – the fantastic Jamie-Rose Monk (Johnny Bevan), Charlotte Hanna-Williams as Jean Leslie and the brilliant Christian Andrews as office manager, Hester Leggatt…….everyone playing several other characters to boot.

The stage was filled with raw talent, not ‘names’ and it was an absolute joy to watch leaving me almost breathless by curtain down, not only for its complexity of thought, music, and, occasionally, rap style lyrics, but for its seamless delivery.

A complete satire of the old boy network that still pervades Whitehall, Operation Mincemeat takes a delicate subject and elevates it in such a way that it produces something not only unique and funny but never disrespectful.

At the very end the laughing stops and in the split second before curtain down, homage is paid to the ‘real’ man who was the ultimate hero, Glyndwr Michael, the homeless Welshman whose body was cast into the sea so that thousands of lives could be saved.

To coin my late news editor’s famous saying when presented with something special: “This was the jewel in a well-studded crown”. Magnificent.

Operation Mincemeat
Alhambra, Bradford
Until Saturday 11th April