By Shelley A. Sackett
In 1943, Ian Fleming (yes, that Ian Fleming) is credited with having written what became known as the Trout Memo. Then assistant to Rear Admiral John Godfrey (chief of the Naval Intelligence Department, or NID), the memo outlined a scheme to deceive the Germans about Allied plans to land in Sicily, luring their 100,000 troops instead to Sardinia and Greece.
Fleming’s plan (which he later admitted he “borrowed” from “The Milliner’s Hat Mystery,” a 1937 crime non-fiction thriller by Basil Thompson) was to let the Germans discover a corpse with a set of false plans on it. The idea was picked up by Charles “Charlie” Cholmondelay, a myopic RAF officer. He unsuccessfully pitched it to his own higher-ups at the XX (or Double Cross System), the World War II counter-espionage and deception operation of MI5. In the process, his idea caught the eye of its chairman (also a spy novelist), who appointed Ewen Montagu, the NID representative, to further develop Charlie’s unusual strategy. Dubbed “Operation Mincemeat,” the plan was approved, a team assigned, and the ball started rolling.
Among those who aided Montagu and “Charlie” were Sir Bernard Spilsbury, a celebrity pathologist; John Bevan, Head of the London Controlling Section, who oversaw strategic deception operations; Hester Leggatt, an administrative assistant in the department that managed Double Cross agents; and Jean Leslie, Wartime secretary at MI5.
Using the body of Glyndwr Michael, a Welsh coal miner’s son who had ingested rat poison, the team created Major Bill Martin, a “Trojan corpse” and entirely fictional Royal Marines officer. He was carefully dressed in an appropriate uniform with his false invasion plans and a love letter from his fiancée, written by Hester (with a picture of Jean attached) and many other personal artifacts, meant to make Bill believable. They placed these in a briefcase attached to his belt and put it in the sea in the Gulf of Cadiz from the submarine Seraph (the boat’s CO, Lieutenant Bill Jewell, even read the 39th Psalm over him). Half a mile to the south, a rubber dinghy was thrown overboard to provide additional “evidence” of a crash.
The corpse found its way to the Spanish coast where, thanks to the duplicity of the “neutral” Franco government, the plans ended up in Hitler’s hands.
The ruse, proving that fact is often stranger than fiction, worked and became fodder for Montagu’s 1953 book, “The Man Who Never Was,” which was adapted into a 1956 film of the same name. More modern historical accounts include Ben Macintyre’s 2010 book, “Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory,” the 2022 Netflix film “Operation Mincemeat,” and finally, the 2023 West End British hit musical conceived by the collective known as SplitLip and now enjoying a must-see run at the Colonial Emerson, Operation Mincemeat.
Ribald and snooty, with elements of Monty Python, Mel Brooks, The 39 Steps, Hamilton, and Looney Tunes, Operation Mincemeat is packed with a stellar lineup of musical numbers and glitzy choreography (Jenny Arnold). It also has emotional depth, flashes of seriousness, the visual candy of a simple but intriguing set, and quick-change costumes (Ben Stones for both). There’s just enough history to satisfy buffs and enlighten the uninformed.
But the real reason to see the show is the phenomenal ensemble cast, whose talents shine under Robert Hastie’s razor-sharp direction. Playing dozens of different, often cross-gender characters with costume, gestural, and vocal changes, the actors anchor the show and keep the audience engaged for over 2.5+ hours (including intermission).
As Hester and coroner Spilsbury, among others, Luke Anthony Neville steals every scene he’s in. He nimbly changes from stalwart, stony female administrator to flamboyantly sleazy pathologist with a flick of the wrist or donning of a pearled eyeglass necklace. In Hester’s “Dear Bill,” the love letter she composes as Bill Martin’s vicarious fiancée, Neville unleashes heartbreak and private pain that leaves the audience spellbound. Likewise, “Making A Man’ and “Spilsbury” expose the pathologist and his shadiness in a vaudevillian performance complete with sequins and top hat.
Equally splendid are the feline Katie Kleiger as the egomaniacal Montagu (what a set of pipes!), Erin Ramirez as the spirited Jean Leslie, and Jake Bentley Young as the newt-obsessed, nerdy but brilliant Charlie. Alas, Mariah Copeland brings too much British stiff upper lip to her unnuanced Colonel Johnny Bevan, but manages a bit more flair in her other ancillary roles.
The plot pretty much follows the outline of actual events, but SplitLip’s lyrics (when decipherable, an annoying problem throughout the show) add humor, personality and flesh to the storyline’s bones. There is a variety show menu of styles to boot, ranging from sea shanty to 40’s swing to rap and girl-group pop.
Dialogue is often pithy, dry and rapid-fire, spoken for comedic effect as much as substance, but when the characters speak seriously about the fragile state of their world, the impact is chilling in its pertinence to today.
“If people like us just blindly follow orders, the fascists won’t need to bash the door down. They’ll have already won,” Jean tells Charlie. Nazism and Hitler’s tactics sometimes feel a little too familiar for comfort.
Overall, though, the music and dance numbers, the silliness, the sound design with its water effects (Mike Walker) and the sheer chutzpah of the true wartime tale outweigh the need for closed captions and a drawn-out second act (what second act these days is not in need of trimming?). Bottom line, Operation Mincemeat is a jolly good show with a cast that does it justice and then some.
Recommended.
‘Operation Mincemeat’ — Book, Music and Lyrics by David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, Zoë Roberts. Directed by Robert Hastie. Choreographed by Jenny Arnold. Music Direction by Nick Williams. Presented by Broadway in Boston at The Emerson Colonial Theatre through October 20.For more information, visit https://boston.broadway.com/shows/operation-mincemeat/
