Operation Mincemeat at the Southwark Playhouse
(Picture: Handout)On the list of unlikely subjects for musical theatre, using a disguised corpse to fox Hitler must rank… well, just behind Springtime for Hitler in The Producers, I suppose. But here is SpitLip’s deliciously rackety show, based on a true and improbably successful WW2 operation, back for a triumphant third run, after a premiere at the New Diorama in 2019 and a sellout success at Southwark in 2021.
Three of the four writer/composers are among the five-strong cast, romping through a plethora of musical styles and lots of ironic anachronisms, celebrating and mocking the posh eccentrics who ran the UK war effort. With a revisionist, feminist streak and the energy of a hyper-sophisticated student show, it shares DNA with Six the Musical and London’s short-lived recent hit Pride and Prejudice (Sort Of). Pretty good company to be in.
