Tony and Olivier Award-winning musical “Operation Mincemeat” is heading Down Under, with the West End and Broadway hit set to make its Australian debut in 2027. The musical will open at Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre in September before embarking on a wider Australian tour, with further cities still to be announced.
Based on the very real – and very bizarre – British intelligence operation of the same name, “Operation Mincemeat” takes audiences back to 1943, when the Allies devised an elaborate scheme to deceive Nazi Germany about their intended invasion of Sicily. The plan? Plant fake invasion documents on a corpse and make sure they landed in enemy hands.
With plenty of farce and old-school espionage thrown in, the production follows the eccentric intelligence officers behind the audacious scheme, with five performers taking on more than 80 characters.
The search for the production’s five Australian leads will begin early next year, with Avalon producer Jon Thoday telling Variety Australia he plans to be closely involved in the casting process. “We’re very involved. Obviously every time you do a new production, a big, big part of it is the casting,” he said.
Asked whether the five-person ensemble would be cast locally, Thoday was unequivocal: “Absolutely, yeah.”
As for whether the show will be tweaked for Australian audiences, Thoday isn’t expecting major changes. “In my experience of British comedians going to Australia, or Australian comedians coming to the UK, comedy wise, you probably don’t need to do anything. The story is the story,” he explained. “Australian humour is so informed by British humour. It just is. It will work.”
Created by British musical comedy troupe SpitLip – comprising David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts – the show started life at London’s 77-seat New Diorama Theatre in 2019.
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Thoday recalled walking into an early version of the production without knowing much about it – or the extraordinary true World War II story behind it – before being won over and quickly deciding he wanted to be involved. “I assumed that every West End producer would be after it,” he said. “And it was only about a year ago when SpitLip finally told me that no one else wanted to.”
Thoday couldn’t quite pinpoint what had won him over. “I can’t tell you, I just liked it. I just knew it was good.”
After sold-out runs at Southwark Playhouse and Riverside Studios, “Operation Mincemeat” transferred to the West End’s Fortune Theatre in 2023 before making its Broadway debut at the Golden Theatre in February 2025. The production has since been extended 19 times in London and 10 times on Broadway, collecting 66 award nominations and 24 wins along the way.
Among them are four Best Musical wins, including at the Olivier Awards, while its Broadway run picked up four Tony nominations in 2025. Jak Malone won the Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance as Hester Leggatt, having previously won an Olivier for the same role.
Thoday believes the show’s ability to move audiences as much as it makes them laugh is central to its success. “One of the wonderful things about the show is it is a rare thing to laugh and cry,” he said. “And it’s even rarer to have something with a strong story. And for me that’s really the heart of why the show is successful. It tugs at the emotions. And it releases the laughter.”
“Operation Mincemeant” has also developed a particularly devoted fanbase known as the “Mincefluencers”, whose enthusiasm has followed the production from London to New York. Around 300 fans travelled across the Atlantic for its first Broadway preview, where they surprised the cast with a rendition of the musical’s signature song, “Sail On, Boys.”
Earlier this year, “Operation Mincemeat” sold its one millionth ticket, marking the milestone by giving away five “Golden Tickets” granting their owners unlimited access to productions of the musical anywhere in the world for life. One particularly committed “Mincefluencer”, meanwhile, has taken their devotion to another level, seeing the show a remarkable 327 times.
Australia will become the fifth production of “Operation Mincemeat” as its international expansion continues, with New Zealand, China and Mexico also on its itinerary.
“Operation Mincemeat” opens at Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre in September 2027, with further Australian dates and cities to be announced. See here for details.
Variety Australia travelled to London as a guest of the production.