Tag: Sean Carey

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REVIEW: SplitLip presents Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical, Grand Opera House, York, till Saturday (performance ****, songs **1/2)

Charlotte Hanna-Williams’s Jean Leslie, Jamie-Rose Monks’ Johnny Bevan, Sean Carey’s Charles Cholmondeley, Holly Sumpton’s Ewen Montagu and Christian Andrews’ Hester Leggatt in Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical. All pictures: Matt Crockett

LIKE Six The Musical, Operation Mincemeat’s reputation precedes its York arrival.

Six began as a Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society student show at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe; Operation Mincemeat was a Hail Mary of a change of tack by Edinburgh Fringe purveyors of “weird comedy” SplitLip, premiered at the New Diaroma Theatre, London, in May 2019. Edinburgh that summer, the West End in May 2023 and Broadway in February 2025 ensued, and now comes its first-ever tour.

The technical demands of SplitLip’s bravura show necessitated a two-day “get-in”, leading to the decision six weeks ago to switch the first night from Monday to Tuesday.

Unusually too, that led to the reviewers being posted in Rows D and E in the Stalls, rather than the familiar Row B and C in the Dress Circle, a regular position that affords a more panoramic view and less attrition for the ears. So near the stage, you can see the whites of the eyes, but music can take on the aural impact of white noise, particularly when those songs are often so hyper-energetic and intense.

Charlotte Hanna-Williams’ Jean Leslie in Operation Mincemeat

On the tour poster by the Clifford Street entrance, the  wording ‘77 five-star reviews’ had been struck through to say ‘88’, as if a dare to reviewers to keep that count rising  for “the best reviewed show in West End history”.

Six The Musical swanned in with much the same anticipation, or hype, if you prefer, and reviewers couldn’t resist giving six out of five verdicts for a novelty girl-power musical that put the herstory into history, turning Henry VIII’s wives into a competitive sextet vying to be lead singer in a girl band, as much a concert as an historical drama.

Operation Mincemeat is rooted in history too: the improbable but true story of perhaps the Second World War’s “most audacious intelligence coup”, the one where MI5 operatives deceived Nazi Germany over the intended invasion target of Sicily in 1943 by floating a dead body with the fake, misleading documents of a Royal Marines officer on to the Spanish coast.

That bizarre plot could make a play, and twice it has been transformed into a film, drawing on Ewen Montagu’s book for 1956’s The Man Who Never Was and 2021’s Operation Mincemeat, the Colin Firth one directed by John Madden.

Christian Andrews’ Hester Leggatt

Jamie-Rose Monk’s Colonel Johnny Bevan

SplitLip’s David Cumming, Natasha Hodgson, Felix Hagan and Zoe Roberts bring a comedy troupe’s sense of satire, experimentation, sketch structure, restless energy and order from chaos, beloved of Monty Python, The Fast Show and Patrick Barlow’s National Theatre of Brent shows and The 39 Steps revamp.

Consequently, the character-driven storytelling is Operation Mincemeat’s strongest suit, the humour delightfully British, knockabout, full of mischief, fizz, sometimes fury, and send-ups of British intelligence stereotypes, with room aplenty for pathos too to complement all the quips and stings so quick off the lips.

However, the songs are so prominent that Operation Mincemeat feels rather too close to a sung-through musical, and too often they go on too long and could do with more melody, rather than the propulsion and force typified by the lurid Nazi rap of Das Ubermensch that opens Act Two. Christian Andrews’ rendition of Hester Leggatt’s paean Dear Bill is a rare sobering intervention.

One review elsewhere in the country had suggested the “big question on our lips was: how on earth do you make a successful comedy musical about a wartime story?” Mel Brooks might wish to point you in the direction of 1967’s film The Producers and subsequent 2001 Broadway musical, featuring Springtime For Hitler et al.

Holly Sumpton’s Ewen Montagu

Brooks had a better balance of dialogue and music, but if Operation Mincemeat’s songs overplay their hand, former Sheffield Theatres artistic director Robert Hastie and tour director Georgie Straight nevertheless deliver a sophisticated, sassy, technically slick, fast-moving comic romp with stylish set and costume design by Ben Stones, full of elegant lines, intelligence-office minutiae, German cabaret club chic and classic English suits, jackets, braces and ties, as crisp as Jenny Arnold’s choreography.

Above all, Operation Mincemeat has superb performances by a cast of five, each kept busy with playing “Others” as well as the five principals, Holly Sumpton’s pin-sharp, pin-striped Ewen Montagu; Sean Carey’s awkward Charles Cholmondeley; Montagu’s co-devisor of Operation Mincemeat; Christian Andrews’ fastidious senior secretary Hester Leggatt; Jamie-Rose Monk’s Colonel Johnny Bevan, the intemperate boss, and Charlotte Hanna-Williams’ eager-to-learn 19-year-old clerk, Jean Leslie.

Part of the comedic impact lies in the multitude of gender swaps in the role-playing, designed to counter the Boys Club strictures that prevailed at the time. Company new recruit Monk has particular fun as ‘Our Man in Huelva’ and MI5 operative Ian Fleming; Carey’s Cholmondeley delivers a series of amusingly baffling one-liners; Andrews maximises his series of outré Others, especially his glitter-spattered coroner; Hanna-Williams has the peachiest singing voice; Sumpton, immaculate in dress code, sometimes inscrutable in manner, is both the ace and the joker in the pack.

A bells-and-whistles finale looks ahead to what the protagonists did next, but crucially too the show pays tribute to Glyndwr Michael, the homeless Welshman, who had died of rat poisoning in London, his body subsequently being given the invented persona of William Martin for Operation Mincemeat’s act of deception.

SplitLip’s Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical runs at Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york. Also Hull New Theatre, July 6 to 11, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: https://www.hulltheatres.co.uk/.

Sean Carey as Charles Cholmondeley

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How SplitLip’s Operation Mincemeat turned the war and musical theatre upside down. Next stop, Grand Opera House, York

Jump to it: Charlotte Hanna-Williams, left, Jamie-Rose Monk, Sean Carey, Holly Sumpton and Christian Andrews in SplitLip’s Operation Mincemeat. Picture: Matt Crockett

THE decision to write the brash musical Operation Mincemeat was the last roll of the dice from its quartet of young British creative talents after years of performing sketch shows at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Next week, the world tour announced at the entrance of the United Nations in New York City on May 13 2025 arrives at the Grand Opera House, York, where musical comedy troupe SplitLip’s Olivier, WhatsOnStage, Off-West End and Tony awards winner will run from June 2 to 6.

What began as a tiny and tiny-budgeted Fringe show at London’s 77-seat New Diorama Theatre in May 2019 – after a scratch performance at The Lowry, Salford –triggered sold-out runs at Southwark Playhouse and Riverside Studios, followed by a West End premiere at the Fortune Theatre in May 2023, subsequently drawing 88 five-star reviews and 64 award nominations and rising, while building a fanbase known affectionately as “Mincefluencers”.

“We wish to thank the audiences who continue to carry this show with love and enthusiasm,” say writer-composers David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts.

“Operation Mincemeat reminds us that in uncertain times, the bonds between allies are more important than ever – and that message feels especially relevant as we consider all the great nations in which our show will now have the opportunity to play. This show continues to be the adventure of a lifetime, and we’re wildly excited about what’s to come.”

Charlotte Hanna-Williams’s Jean Leslie in Operation Mincemeat. Picture: Matt Crockett

SplitLip’s musical is set in 1943, when the Allied Forces are on the ropes, but luckily they have a trick up their sleeve. Correction, not up their sleeve, per se, but rather, inside the pocket of a stolen corpse. Equal parts farce, thriller and Ian Fleming-style spy caper, Operation Mincemeat tells the wildly improbable true story of the twisted covert operation that turned the tide of the Second World War. 

Bursting at the seams with the kind of chaos that no-one could invent, the question is: how did a dead body, a fake love letter  and – of all people – MI5 operative Ian Fleming come together to wrong-foot Hitler?

In a nutshell, five actors play more than 80 roles as MI5 plans to fool the Nazis as to where an Allied invasion of Italy was to occur.  “We had been devouring every kind of source we could for telling the story of Operation Mincemeat, and we’d come to this realisation that it chimed every macabre, sick, twisted bell in all our horrible heads,” recalls Felix Hagan. “By miles, the funniest thing that we could think of at the start was that Ian Fleming was involved.”

SplitLip had a track record for “weirder, cabaret-style work” when they crafted Operation Mincemeat as their first musical, whose style spanned period ballads to hip-hop. “We approached every number completely with a clean slate as to what is the correct musical palette for this one song,” says David Cumming, who originated the role of Charles Cholmondeley, the nerdy MI5 conceiver of the subterfuge.

“And so we were less thinking about who’s going to be watching it; we were like, what does the story require in this moment, for this moment to be the best it possibly can be?”

Jamie-Rose Monk’s Johnny Bevan in Operation Mincemeat. Picture: Matt Crockett

Directed by Robert Hastie, former artistic director of Sheffield Theatres and director of Chris Bush and Richard Hawley’s Sheffield musical Standing At The Sky’s Edge, the touring cast combines Christian Andrews, Holly Sumpton, Seán Carey and Charlotte Hanna-Williams from the West End production with latest recruit Jamie-Rose Monk.

“I first saw it in the West End,” says Jamie-Rose. “I thought how sometimes, when you have a high expectation of a show with a bit of hype about it, that it doesn’t live up to it, but Operation Mincemeat absolutely smashed it, with so many characters in it, making you wonder how they did it and how it was one of things that could only work in the theatre, taking you on a storytelling journey.”

Charlotte recalls her first encounter. “I had friends who’d seen it before it went into the West End, but even at that point, when I was in the process of auditioning, I didn’t know what to expect,” she says.

“I was just in awe, and I was really excited from an actor’s point of view. It was such an exciting prospect, so rewarding to do, but also thinking, ‘oh my god, how on Earth are there only five actors doing this?!”

Charlotte was also struck by how “it’s a true story that’s managed to completely pass people by when we’re learning about the [Second World] War at school”.

“We do often see the male side of history, but actually this show is really good at showing how instrumental women were,” says Charlotte Hanna-Williams

Jamie-Rose rejoins: “The first thing that hit me when I watched it was the spirit of the show: the spirit of deception and the strategy involved. It really captures how a small group is trying to pull off this mad thing, which we see play out for real.”

The female perspective is a strong feature too. “We do often see the male side of history, but actually this show is really good at showing how instrumental women were,” says Charlotte.

“It’s not shoved down your throat, but it’s great to discover these people, and now even more research has been done by fans of the show, leading to a book about or characters, so it really shows how so many individuals came together, and quite unexpectedly, not the generals but people who work in the office.”

Jamie-Rose was delighted to be joining the debut Operation Mincemeat tour in February: “It’s a real gift to know that you’re about to do an excellent, tried-and-trusted show with brilliant writing, characters and music that we know works. It’s a real treat, but it’s also quite scary, because there’s expectation, which is terrifying but exciting too.”

Charlotte could draw on her West End experience of performing in the show. “You’re running on adrenaline a lot. That’s why we rehearse really thoroughly, so if anything goes wrong, we pick each other up 100 per cent. That’s why I’m really proud about doing this show.”

“It’s really good to get to play someone I would never be cast as normally. It’s one of my favourite moments,” says Jamie-Rose Monk of performing the role of MI5 operative Ian Fleming in Operation Mincemeat

Among her roles is Jean Leslie: “She’s the only female character being played by a female member of the cast! There’s lots of gender swapping for roles,” she says. “Jean is a young woman coming into MI5, which, at the time, was a bit of a boys’ club, and there’s this expectation that she’ll be part of the typing pool, but I get to play a character who’s really true to herself and is more than the girl who makes the tea.

“There’s also a moment of real poignancy in her journey, and it’s such a privilege to tell her story.”

Visiting York for the first time, Jamie-Rose’s principal role is Johnny Bevan. “He’s the ‘boss boss’, tasked by Downing Street to make up a deception plan, and I guess the main thing we get from Bevan are the stakes of the operation, where it’s so fast paced and fun, but it’s also serious with life consequences if it’s not pulled off successfully,” Jamie-Rose says.

“I also play Haselden [Francis Haselden, British Vice-Consul in Huelva], who’s in Spain, tasked with making sure it goes well, but he’s not so good at that, and Ian Fleming, who you see at the start at MI5. It’s really good to get to play someone I would never be cast as normally. It’s one of my favourite moments.”

Summing up the five-star appeal of Operation Mincemeat, Charlotte concludes: “It appeals to all demographics. Someone said, their husband usually hates musicals, but now he’s bought the soundtrack album!”

SplitLip in Operation Mincemeat: A New Musicalt, Grand Opera House, York, June 2 to 6, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday & Saturday matinees. Also Hull New Theatre, July 6 to 11, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Thursday & Saturday matinees; Leeds Grand Theatre, September 7 to 12, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: York, atgtickets.com/york; Hull, hulltheatres.co.uk; Leeds, leedsheritagetheatres.com.

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The Play That Goes Wrong goes wrong in York again and again and again as Grand Opera House return beckons next month

Window of opportunity for mayhem: Mischief in The Play That Goes Wrong

DISASTER strikes again as Mischief’s calamitous comedy The Play That Goes Wrong hits York this autumn.

The Olivier Award and Tony Award winner, now in its seventh year in the West End, will wreak havoc at the Grand Opera House, York, from September 28 to October 3 on its fourth tour.

The show began life on the London fringe when four friends from drama school set up a company under the name “Mischief” on graduating.

After enticing only four paying customers on the first night, The Play That Goes Wrong has since played to two million people worldwide, taking home an Olivier for Best New Comedy in 2015 and a Tony for its subsequent Broadway transfer.

Mischief have enjoyed further West End success with Peter Pan Goes Wrong, A Comedy About A Bank Robbery, Groan Ups, Mischief Movie Night and Magic Goes Wrong, while their debut six-part television series, The Goes Wrong Show, aired on BBC One. The 2020 commission of a Christmas special, Nativity, will be followed by a second series, now in production.

Dogged by bad luck in the play within a play: Cornley Drama Society’s ill-fated performance of The Murder At Haversham Manor in Mischief’s The Play That Goes Wrong

In The Play That Goes Wrong, the (fictional) Cornley Drama Society are putting on a 1920s’ murder mystery, The Murder At Haversham Manor, but as the title suggests, everything that can go wrong … does! The accident-prone thesps must battle against all the odds to reach their final curtain call, alas for them with ever-more humorous results.

In the 2021 touring cast will be Tom Babbage as Max; Tom Bulpett as Chris; Seán Carey as Jonathan; Leonard Cook as Robert; Edward Howells as Dennis; April Hughes as Sandra; Laura Kirman as Annie and Gabriel Paul as Trevor. Understudies will be Katie Hitchcock, Damien James, Edi De Melo and Aisha Numah.

Co-written by Mischief company members Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, the tour production is directed by Sean Turner, with set designs by Nigel Hook, costumes by Roberto Surace, lighting by Ric Mountjoy and sound design by Andrew Johnson.

The Play That Goes Wrong will be completing a hattrick of York visits after playing the Theatre Royal in April 2014 and the Grand Opera House in May 2018. Mischief’s “criminally good” A Comedy About A Bank Robbery made its York debut at the Opera House in February 2019, with soon-to-return Sean Carey as the ace scene stealer.

Tickets for next month’s 7.30pm evening performances and 2.30pm Thursday, Saturday and Sunday matinees are on sale on 0844 871 7615 or at atgtickets.com/York.

In a flap: Mischief’s The Play That Goes Wrong is heading for York for the third time