23 July 2025 Evening Performance
Golden Theatre
Operation Mincemeat is a musical comedy based on the real events during WWII which lead the British military to use a corpse to trick Hitler into moving the German troops out of Sicily and into Sardinia, which was an essential part of why Germany lost the war. This show is chocked full of British humour, filled with small details (an example being a prison uniform labelled “24602”), relies heavily on perfect timing, and is all done by a cast of five actors playing close to 50 or more different characters in total.
This was my second time seeing this show (Read my prior review), so I was actually quite happy to see one of the understudies stepping into the role for the performance. I love being able to compare and contrast how the different actors played the same character. In this case, Jak Malone (who usually plays the character of Hester, among others) was out for this performance and Sam Hartley filled those shoes. Anyone who has read my last review of the show knows that I found Jak’s performance to be absolutely phenomenal – layered, deep, and beautiful (and that’s just for the character of Hester; never-mind the roles of Spilsbury, Ivor Montague, Lieutenant Bill Jewell, Willie Watkins, and more).
Sam Hartley played the character of Hester differently than Jak did. Sam’s version of Hester felt more timid. Whereas Jak’s portrayal made Hester come off as more confident – even in the song “Dear Bill”, when Jak sings that song, he hits every note cleanly and clearly, as if the notes and memories just come to Hester from her lived experience and she confidently and (mostly) happily relives the memories needed to write the letter that is being planted on the corpse. When Sam sang “Dear Bill”, it didn’t feel so much as if Hester had actually healed from her past. It came off more as if she was still truly struggling with the heartache that those memories bring her. It was almost as if the memories haven’t reached the point of being happy memories yet, like she is still in the part of the grieving process where even saying the words out loud is challenging and she still is perhaps bitter at not being able to make more of those (formerly) happy memories.
Another example of how the two actors played the character differently had to do with Hester’s interactions with the character of Johnny Bevan (played by Zoe Roberts). In Jak’s portrayal, with the character of Hester having more perceived confidence, she acts very professionally when around Bevan. It feels as if Hester would not dream of acting on any potential romantic feelings towards Bevan not because she may fear being hurt, but rather because Bevan is her boss and that could definitely be seen as inappropriate due to the power dynamic of a boss/subordinate relationship and/or it simply wouldn’t be the proper lady like thing to do for a proper British woman of that time period. When the character is perceived like this, is makes the mentorship-like relationship between Hester and the character of Jean Leslie (played by Claire-Marie Hall) not just wholesome, but also perhaps gives the two characters a more meaningful connection because it implies that Hester has learnt from Jean as well.
In the same interactions between the characters of Hester and Bevan, but with Sam’s portrayal of Hester, it felt as if Hester was simply too afraid to act on any potential romantic feelings. Not because it would be inappropriate, though, but rather because the thought of loving and losing again is just too much for Hester to realistically consider. Hester still does come off as if she learned from Jean, just not to such an obvious degree — it’s still there, just more subtle.
Honestly, I think it says a lot about Sam Hartley as an actor to be able to step into the shoes of the person who originated the role and then give a performance that is not just a replication of the originator. Sam was able to bring the character of Hester to life in an equally as good way, but also a very different way. And that is always nice to see.
The main cast: David Cumming (as Charles Cholmondeley and others), Claire-Marie Hall (as Jean Leslie and others), Natasha Hodgson (as Ewen Montagu and others), Jak Malone (as Hester Leggatt and others), and Zoe Roberts (as Johnny Bevan and others) have been playing these roles together for about six years and (I believe) they are the originators of each role. Which is why I find it so impressive that Sam’s presence on stage did not change the chemistry between the characters. In fact, even with the slight changes in the character of Hester that really made the character his own, Sam was able to keep the feel of the show and chemistry between characters the same. At no point did he feel like the odd man out. Brilliantly done.
The large range of characters that the actors play really is impressively done. Throughout the show, the various actors change characters on stage, right before the audiences’ eyes and it is done flawlessly. The actors change not only their physical demeanour, but also the dialect and accent they are using, the clothing they are wearing, they literally drop one character and seamlessly go on to another before just as seamlessly going back to the first character. Just one, out of many, prime examples of this comes in the shows final scene, appropriately titled “A Glitzy Finale”. In this scene we see David Cumming portray both his main character of Charlie Cholmondeley and as an actor portraying the character of Charlie, as seen through the eyes of the character of Ewen Montagu. On top of the that, when portraying the role of the actor who is portraying the character of Charlie, we seen the actor‐character both in and out of the character of Charlie. And all this is done by stepping forwards, putting on glasses, changing his posture, and changing his voice, only to reverse the entire change just as easily to return as the original portrayal of the actor.
There did appear to be some small changes to particular lines of dialogue since I saw the show last, but nothing major was changed. What definitely did not change was the impressive vocals from Natasha Hodgson. She largely plays male characters in this show and I have been impressed each and every time as just how deep her voice can get because conversely, she can also hit a damn good high note.
David Cumming is probably the actor that plays the most physically demanding role in the show. The character of Charles is a very anxiety ridden, high energy one. On stage, David looks very tall and lanky. By the end of the song “Dead in the Water” (which comes early in the first act), I am always left thinking “this guy could really do justice to Monty Python’s ‘Ministry of Silly Walks’”, so it is always a bit of a surprise when he comes out at the stage door and is not a particularly tall man. A lot can be said for the costuming of this show, which is both simple (often coming down to a change of a hat or jacket) and effective — both in being able to be done very quickly, but also at just easily getting the feel of the character across to the audience right away.
This is a show that I could easily watch time and time again because I’ll notice something new each and every time. There is so much nuance that goes into this production that I know there is always something I’ve missed. And I love when shows are that brilliantly detailed. One detail that I absolutely missed the first time is a simple one: the logo on the playbill. The words “Operation Mincemeat” are not only outlined to make it look like the briefcase that is prefixed to the wrist of the corpse that was used by the British, but it also doubles as Hitler’s moustache. The scribble, is Hitler’s hair. I want to give a special shoutout to the fan that pointed this detail out to me because once you see it, you can’t unsee it and it is just such a brilliant detail. I also appreciate how very self aware this show is both in the sense of acknowledging that it itself is a show, but also socially and politically. I also happen to be a sucker for a show breaking the fourth wall, which this show does at times, and unapologetically so.
All of these actors are stars. They all give it their all in each and every performance. But perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of this show is simply how much fun the cast has performing it. I hope to see this show stick around for a very long time because it honestly is a masterpiece.
