Big leap for hit comedy musical

Wartime comedy musical Operation Mincemeat is to transfer to  Broadway next year,

The show will open at the 800-seater Golden Theatre  on March 20, becoming the theatre’s first musical since Avenue Q more than 20 years ago. 

Operation Mincemeat began as a tiny production at the 81-seat New Diorama theatre in London in 2019, where it became a hit that expanded into the Southwark Playhouse and Riverside Studios. 

It premiered in the West End on May 9 last year at the Fortune Theatre, where it has been extended ten times, and is currently booking until  March. 8  

The musical is following in the footsteps of Beyond the Fringe   quartet of Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller, and Dudley Moore, who premiered their era-defining show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1960, before moving to the Fortune Theatre and later to the Golden in 1962.

Based around the true story of a daring Second World War misinformation mission, the show has so far sold more than 300,000 tickets in London – including more than 140 to one die-hard fan who has been back that often.

Operation Mincemeat was written and composed by  David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts, collectively known as SplitLip.

In a statement, they said: ‘If we had to name one single unifying influence for Operation Mincemeat, it would be the American musical comedy: The Producers, Guys and Dolls, Wicked, Avenue Q, The Book Of Mormon - we never dreamed we would even get to go see shows like these on Broadway, let alone open our show alongside them. 

‘Thank you to our fans, and particularly those in the US for getting Operation Mincemeat here. If it gets hounded out of Broadway after one night, it will still be beyond our wildest dreams. Our producers, we’d imagine, would be less pleased.’

Casting, ticket prices and show times of the Broadway run are yet to be announced.

Read our review of the show here.

Published: 1 Oct 2024