Broadway in Chicago presents Tony and Olivier Award-winning OPERATION MINCEMEAT: A New Musical.
It’s 1943. British Intelligence needs a plan to bring down Hitler. When the hapless Charles Cholmondeley gets pushed aside and the cocky Ewen Montagu gets rejected, an improbable scheme makes an unlikely comeback. The duo want to plant a corpse with fake Top Secret documents to divert the Nazis from Italy. The idea has flashes of “Hogan Heroes” meets “Weekend at Bernies.” It’s so preposterous…. it just might work. Based on a true story, OPERATION MINCEMEAT is a comedy thriller set to music. It’s the guidebook to fighting tyranny with ingenuity, laughter, and a lot of dumb luck.
SpitLip (David Cummings, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, Zoë Roberts) is the award-winning musical comedy troupe behind this hit show. Actor-writers Cummings, Hodgson and Roberts worked alongside composer and band leader Hagan to create this outlandish spectacle. OPERATION MINCEMEAT debuted in small fringe venues, premiered in the West End, transferred to Broadway, and spawned a World tour.
The madcap romp is orchestrated to perfection by Director Robert Hastie, Choreographer Jenny Arnold, Conductor Nick Williams, and Production Stage Manager Geoff Maus. It’s a gleefully chaotic showcase of comic invention. It’s part fast-paced shtick as bodies, briefcases, and phones delightfully snarl and cleverly unsnarl. And part astonishing stagecraft as nightclub melds into a ship and American pilots defect to the Third Reich. Antics. Never. Stop!
The diehard ensemble of five (Mariah Copeland, Katie Kleiger, Luke Antony Neville, Erin Ramirez, Jake Bentley Young) are always on… onstage! They slip in and out of accents, costumes, and genders effortlessly, instantaneously, and distinctly all the while singing and dancing. It’s marveling! Kleiger commands attention as a Cary Grant-type, debonaire and firing off dialogue with effortless charm. Copeland amusingly contrasts gruff commanding officer and the buffoon on the inside. Ramirez balances between women empowerment and goofy sidekick. Young is an endearing reluctant ride-or-die to Kleiger’s bulldozing mission advancement. And Neville in playing multiple personas brings unexpected heartfelt sweetness as the prim secretary writing a “Dear Bill” letter. The cast is unbelievably talented, energetic, and fricking hilarious!
OPERATION MINCEMEAT: A New Musical is on a mission to entertain. And they crush it! Aren’t you ready to see a tyrant get bamboozled? Buy a ticket and surrender to fun!
Running Time: Two hours and forty-five includes an intermission
CIBC Theatre, 18 W. Monroe
Book, lyrics and music by SpitLip (David Cummings, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, Zoë Roberts)
Directed by Robert Hastie
Choreographed by Jenny Arnold
Music Direction by Nick Williams
Tuesdays at 7:30pm
Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays at 7pm
Wednesdays at 1pm and 6:30pm
Saturdays at 2pm and 7:30pm
Sundays at 1pm and 7pm
October 11
For more information or tickets
Production photos by Matthew Murphy
For more Chicago theatre information and reviews, please visit Theatre in Chicago
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