One of the strangest military operations of the Second World War saw MI5 disguise the British invasion of Sicily by employing deception, forged documents, love letters... and a mystery corpse!

Now, Operation Mincemeat, a madcap, musical retelling of the tale, is heading to the Midlands as part of a national tour, having garnered rave reviews in the West End.

During the show’s rehearsal period, What’s On spoke to lead actors Christian Andrews and Jamie-Rose Monk - who each appear as multiple characters in the fast-paced production - to find out more...

Hit musical Operation Mincemeat tells the strange-but-true story of a brilliant deception co-ordinated by British intelligence in the Second World War. Now on a national tour, the show features 50 characters but only five lead actors, who swap roles, genders and costumes - notably hats - before the audience’s very eyes.

The cast includes Christian Andrews - who plays MI5 employee Hester Leggatt, among other characters - and Jamie-Rose Monk, whose lead role is Colonel Johnny Bevan.

“Operation Mincemeat was a British World War Two deception plan to fool the Nazis into thinking that British forces were going to invade Sardinia instead of Sicily,” explains Christian. “They came up with a plan to dress up a corpse as a British pilot, plant fake documents on his person, dump him into the sea, and hope that his body and these documents ended up in the hands of German intelligence. And it worked! It’s a madcap story of how a crazy plan helped to, well, eventually, win the war, but also diminish the chance of conflict on the British and German sides. The death toll was so much lower because of this plan.”

Both Christian and Jamie-Rose saw the production in its previous incarnations, and were immediately keen to join the company.

“I saw the show initially at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith,” says Christian. “That was after a number of runs that the show had had at Southwark Playhouse. I loved it. I thought the show was so brilliant, and then got an audition to join the company as an understudy when they were transferring to the West End.”

“I saw the production in the West End,” says Jamie-Rose. “I wasn’t quick enough to get tickets when it was at Southwark Playhouse… I just thought it was really refreshing and entertaining and funny - all the good words that you want something to be!”

Rehearsals for the show are akin to a military operation themselves, with the cast having to get to grips with the challenges of hat-swapping - literally...

“I’m new to it, it’s very exciting and very, very satisfying when you get it right,” says Jamie-Rose. “It can be overwhelming - there’s a lot to do, but I’m really excited about it. For me, the hat-swapping sometimes happens mid-number, which is really fun - lots of tie swapping, lots of hats…”

“It’s a bit like learning a language,” says Christian. “You practise, you practise, you practise, and then, once that all makes sense, it just falls out of you. The way that you know your left hand has to go into your left pocket because that’s where that tie is, and your right hand has to go behind your back because you’re hiding something else. It’s completely mechanical when you’re learning it. Then, when you’re able to live it and play upwards of 30 characters, it’s a totally new skill.”

The show’s cast features a number of historical characters, some of whom might be familiar even to those who don’t know the story.

“We’re only halfway through rehearsals,” says Jamie-Rose, “so there’s some I haven’t touched yet that I think will be a new favourite. At the moment, I like playing James Bond author Ian Fleming. It’s just a bit mad, isn’t it, that I get to do that!”

“I love playing Spillsbury - the coroner that provides the corpse…” adds Christian.

Christian began his time with the production understudying two roles - covering lead characters Hester Leggatt and Charles Cholmondeley - which meant he had to get to grips with twice as many characters.

“I’ve played two of the ‘tracks’, but I feel like I’ve played 40 of them - even though there’s only five! I’ve seen the show every which way, and I was dance captain in the West End as well, so I know the show inside out. It feels very nice to be back with some returning cast members from the West End and with some amazing new cast members as well.”

As a musical, Operation Mincemeat features toe-tapping tunes - and a few surprises…

“The music feels very modern in certain moments, and very ‘poppy’ and super fun,” says Jamie-Rose, “but it also has an old-school cabaret feel to it. It’s a really nice blend of all those things. It feels like an old-school musical with an injection of pop.”

“We play cross-gender and we play sort of cross-class, but also cross-age as well,” adds Christian. “The younger characters have that ‘poppy’ feel in the music, and the older characters have this Big Band, brass, 1940s Glenn Miller vibe - it’s really varied.”

The production has accumulated a host of awards since hitting the stage, including Best New Musical at the Olivier Awards in 2024. The show’s success comes not only from its music, writing and performances, but also the unique live atmosphere that it conjures up.

“It’s five people on stage, creating hundreds of different characters and loads of different places,” Jamie-Rose says. “There’s a real sense of fun and creativity. It feels like ‘a night at the theatre’ that you couldn’t do anywhere else. You couldn’t watch that on screen; it wouldn’t really work. It’s about being there with everybody. It also appeals to a lot of different people. It has great music, lots of comedy, high stakes, and is really moving in parts. It just ticks all your boxes.”

“There’s so much heart in this show,” adds Christian. “I think even though it’s madcap and we all play upwards of 30 characters, there’s a story that the audience follows which is really heartfelt and really emotional. The writers have done such a great job to blend all of that. The two go hand in hand - the more you can make them laugh, the more you can make them cry as well, because you fall in love with who these people are.”

The musical has no connection to the 2021 film of the same name - although the play’s website proudly proclaims that Colin Firth, who starred in the cinematic version, ‘has seen our show, and he’s a fan!’. But the true events which inspired both productions have certainly caught the imaginations of people around the world.

In Christian’s opinion, this zany recreation of an unconventional wartime tale is the latest in a long tradition of storytelling which keeps British history alive - whether in the classroom, through family anecdotes, or on stage and screen: “People of our generation, we remember stories told by our family members about World War Two, though they may not be with us any longer. I think that those stories are still within us. World War Two wasn’t that long ago, really. It’s fairly recent history. Especially in this country, everybody knows about it, and I think everybody has some sort of story they could tell.”

Operation Mincemeat shows at the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre from Tuesday 17 to Saturday 21 March. The production returns to the region next month, showing at the Regent Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent, from Monday 27 April to Saturday 2 May. It then visits The Alexandra, Birmingham, from Monday 11 until Saturday 16 May

By Jessica Clixby