Operation Mincemeat Gives an Unbelievable True Tale the Comedy Treatment at PPAC
The Tony Award-winning show about a World War II deception kicks off its North American tour at the Providence Performing Arts Center this week.
The cast of Operation Mincemeat. From left, Mariah Copeland, Katie Kleiger, Luke Antony Neville, Erin Ramirez and Jake Bentley Young. (Photo by Steve Schofield)
Europe, 1943. A body washes ashore on the Spanish coast. A briefcase attached to the body contains secret plans detailing an imminent British invasion of Sardinia. If recovered by the wrong hands, the briefcase holds the key to an Axis victory. Or does it?
Operation Mincemeat is a new musical based on the unbelievable true story of a covert operation during World War II. Highly classified at the time, the story has since been adapted into books, a 2021 blockbuster film starring Colin Firth and now, a musical comedy. Full of silliness and heart, the story brings together an unlikely cast of characters charged with pulling off one of the greatest deceptions of the twentieth century.
The show opened on the West End in 2023 and Broadway last year before launching its North American tour in Providence this week. It’s not the first musical to choose the Providence Performing Arts Center as its proving ground, but it is one of the most unique. Fast paced and full of witty one-liners, the show employs a cast of five actors playing more than eighty characters between them. With an approach that falls somewhere between Hamilton and Monty Python, the show takes its admittedly serious subject matter and turns it into a fun romp that pushes the limits of creative theater. The handful of somber moments serve to elevate the audience’s investment in the rest of the show.
Two of those actors, Luke Antony Neville (Hester Leggatt and others) and Erin Ramirez (Jean Leslie and others), spoke to Rhode Island Monthly during a press event this week. Neville, a British native, says he’s glad to be back in Providence after visiting the city during the Back to the Future tour in 2025. The cast and creative team have enjoyed sampling Rhode Island’s food and coffee scene, including Little City Coffee & Kitchen, Nitro Bar, Cru PVD, White Electric and others.
“We went to Oberlin for dinner on our night off. Delicious. That lasagna I will be taking with me on the road,” Neville says.
Ramirez, who describes herself as an “Army brat” with Peruvian and Canadian ancestry, first auditioned for an understudy role with the UK cast. Though she didn’t land the part, the prep work helped secure her the role of Jean Leslie in the first North American tour. It’s a role that puts her in the spotlight after several years of serving as an understudy or alternate in Broadway and touring productions of Hamilton, SIX and Les Misérables.
“To get to do just one thing and do it eight times a week and really just get into the details and enjoy fleshing out the character is a real privilege that I haven’t always gotten,” she says.
By “just one thing,” what she means is the constant costume and prop changes required to play more than a dozen characters over the show’s nearly three-hour run. The actors’ quick character switches are part of the show’s appeal, as the scene shifts often between a basement office, a submarine in the Atlantic, a Spanish cafe or a series of British pubs. For all its glitz, (there is a number called “A Glitzy Finale”), Neville says the show gets back to theater basics, relying on subtle voice and movement adjustments rather than over-the-top costumes and set pieces to shift the story from one scene to the next.
“I think it honors theater at its truest form,” he says. “Nowadays there are so many different ways in which theater embraces different devices, whether it’s a huge technical show or multitude of actors like Hamilton has. Operation Mincemeat relies on its actors and really trusts its audience to come along for the ride. And I love that we assume that everyone is smart enough to do so, and they are.”
The result is a show that flows seamlessly, helped along by the synergy of its five actors. In addition to Neville and Ramirez, the touring production stars Mariah Copeland (Johnny Bevan and others), Katie Kleiger (Ewen Montagu and others) and Jake Bentley Young (Charles Cholmondeley and others). The cast bonded early in rehearsals when the production team flew them out to London for costume fittings and publicity shots. That camaraderie is important, as the fast-paced nature of the show means every piece must move in perfect sync.
“We’re all interwoven in our set changes [and] prop moves. So if you drop the ball, it affects somebody else almost immediately. We have to really rely on each other,” Ramirez says. “That was our mentality in the rehearsal room until now being on stage.”
Operation Mincemeat is more interested in putting on a spectacle than unpacking social commentary, but there are a few deeper themes — including Ramirez’s character’s effort to break through the sexism of 1940s military culture — as well as some cleverly delivered political barbs. Ramirez and Neville both hope audiences take inspiration from the show’s unlikely band of heroes and appreciate its big Broadway finish.
“We’re so grateful to have this place be our launch pad,” Ramirez says. “It’s been super high energy and what a lovely, cozy town to exist in while we’re going through the chaos of opening our show.”
Operation Mincemeat plays at the Providence Performing Arts Center through Saturday, Sept. 26. For times and ticket prices, visit ppacri.org.
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