As the drop curtain flies out, the first thing we see is a pair of black patent leather wingtips belonging to Ewen Montagu (Natasha Hodgson, possessor of a righteous growl), arrogantly propped up on a desk. A little over the top, you say? Oh, just wait. This fizzy poly-character musical comedy, based on the true story of a misinformation operation designed to mislead German defenders of Sicily in World War II, hardly gives one time to breathe—the patter songs are that fast, the glitz has glitter all over it, the physical schtick goes to extremes, the character switches flash by in an eyeblink. The show doesn’t just effervesce, it hypervesces.
I’ll call out Jean Leslie’s (Claire-Marie Hall) Beyonce-level song, “All the Ladies,” and Hester Legatt’s (Jak Malone) quiet “Letter to Bill.” Hester is fabricating a letter from home to a British flier (in order to build up the subterfuge), and her heartbroken subtext elicits some snuffles in the audience. Malone also appears as an American pilot, with all the Yankee doodles.
Highly recommended.
- Operation Mincemeat, book, music, and lyrics by David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, and Zoë Roberts, orchestrations by Steve Sidwell, directed by Robert Hastie, John Golden Theatre, New York
See Brian Selbert’s piece for the Times for a peek at the backstage magic.