I’d heard about this show all the way from London’s West End, which went on to Broadway and became a Tony Award-winning hit. I thought, “How good could a show with a title like OPERATION MINCEMEAT be???” Damn good. Astoundingly good. Based on an outlandish but true tale that helped the Allies win WWII, it involves a secret mission, a stolen corpse, Ian Fleming, and Hitler. And it’s a musical!!
I just saw OPERATION MINCEMEAT: A NEW MUSICAL at THE EMERSON COLONIAL THEATRE presented by Broadway in Boston and was gobsmacked by the wit, complexity, humanity, and hilarity of a musical based on a real life war story. Four audacious creators– David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, and Zoë Roberts who call themselves “SpitLip” wrote the book, music, and lyrics here performed by a dazzling cast of five who seemed like a cast of thousands: Mariah Copeland, Katie Kleiger, Luke Antony Neville, Erin Ramirez, and Jake Bentley Young. 
They propel themselves through split second, gender-bending costume changes, playing up to 87 characters in all! It’s a high speed chase– all we have to do is hang on and believe our eyes. The cast spirals through the twists and turns of a dizzying plot, singing or tap dancing or hurtling nonstop through a jaw-dropping array of musical numbers featuring genres and artists from Beyoncé to Backstreet Boys, sea shanties to hip hop, and at least one heartbreaker of a torch song which burns a hole in your soul and stops the show. Thank you–I needed to catch my breath.
Some of the jokes in this British import don’t quite make the crossing– a minor quibble. But I do have one major quibble and it needs to be fixed. The quality of the sound at the Emerson Colonial Theatre was muddy, making the rapid fire lyrics and a tricky plot even harder to decipher. You’ll be on the edge of your seat following along, but this triple-threat cast will get you there and then some. Stitching this crazy quilt of a musical together — in addition to all the laughs, and talent, and energy–is a tremendous sense of camaraderie, heroism, and profound affection for being in this life together. I can’t remember the last time a show so fun and funny left my heart so full.
