Review: ‘Operation Mincemeat’ at CIBC Theatre spins a true wartime story into a nutty musical

In 1943, the British intelligence service, MI6, came up with a wacky strategy to trick Adolf Hitler into thinking the Allies planned to invade Greece and Sardinia (not true) instead of Sicily (true), which Nazi Germany was heavily defending. They found the corpse of a homeless guy who had died in London from rat poison, attached to him a briefcase containing what appeared to be Sardinian invasion plans, sunk said body off the coast of Spain and then worked to get that attaché case into Spanish hands, given that the country was (at the time) lousy with Nazi spies.

Ergo, “Operation Mincemeat,” one of the most wonky, nerdy and loquacious musicals of recent heritage to hit London’s West End and, subsequently, Broadway, which is where I first had the pleasure. It did well in New York; it certainly did not hurt in an era of ballooning costs that the entire cast is five people.

The CIBC Theatre is an early stop on the 2026-27 tour. This does not feature the original British cast, which opened the show on Broadway, but these are top-drawer Equity performers (Mariah Copeland, Kate Kleiger, Luke Antony Neville, Erin Ramirez and Jake Bentley Young) who all are highly competent, deftly cast and fun to boot. The tour feels very fresh and it retains pretty much all of the Broadway production values. The only issue on Wednesday night was less-than-ideal clarity of sound, which matters particularly here because the show’s lyrics not only drive a whole lot of narrative but come at you a mile a minute. That’s a common issue with tours, of course, since sound designers have to create a standard profile for many different buildings; still, they might want to better tune what they are doing for the CIBC Theatre.

All in all, “Operation Mincemeat,” which is the communal comedic creation of David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts, otherwise known as the comedy troupe SpitLip, is one of those shows with feverishly enthusiastic fans even though it is not for everyone.

On a second viewing, though, I better appreciated the off-beat sophistication and subversion of the material, especially its understanding of how musicals mostly have to operate within an emotional landscape. For much of the time here, we are in a “Johnny English,” Monty Python or Austin Powers-like world, albeit of World War II vintage, and this is always a musical that knows it’s a musical even though it is based on a true story. Very meta it can be, typically to amusing effect.

But in other moments, “Operation Mincemeat” homes in on the varied personalities found in the intelligence agency, effectively subverting gender stereotypes and giving us some entree into the beating hearts of the brilliant but sometimes dysfunctional people who planned wartime strategy — all the time competing for attention and success, MI6 being an office like any other. “Operation Mincemeat” is really about their growing awareness of the human stakes of their work, both in terms of the consequences of failure and the personal sacrifice they were demanding from those outside of their ken.

We see this most in a long-serving character named Hester Leggett (the excellent Neville) and a wonderful Act 1 number about missing a loved one called “Dear Bill,” which humanizes everything we have been watching, pays gentle tribute to veterans and allows the show really to reach a place in your heart it had not previously found. I can’t overstate how well Neville sings “Dear Bill,” a very complex song that requires a veritable panoply of emotions while also having to shoulder a hefty storytelling burden. I’d go so far as to say that it’s worth going just for that one deeply moving song, the best material in the show delivered by its outstanding performer.

The score here is a pastiche. There are specific references to shows like “Hamilton” and kind-of-specific references to “Billy Elliot” and “Six.” And, by references, I mean notes and phrasing. Self-awareness, I guess, covers all of that, but you certainly won’t be watching a boundary-pushing song suite.

But you will be watching a very clever musical aimed at smart people and, a few Act 2 sags aside, a show that will give you a bushel of laughs. If you like wartime stories, James Bond movies and appreciate goofiness, “Operation Mincemeat” will make for a very juicy night out.

Chris Jones is a Tribune critic

cjones5@chicagotribune.com

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Review: “Operation Mincemeat” (3 stars)

When: Through Oct. 11

Where: CIBC Theatre, 18 W. Monroe St., Chicago

Running time: 2 hours, 35 minutes

Tickets: $40-$135 at 312-977-1700 and broadwayinchicago.com