For those of us who have been to see our favourite shows multiple times, I’m sure we’ve all found ourselves thinking, “I know just who I’d love to see in this”. I’ve been lucky enough to see Operation Mincemeat multiple times in the West End with both the original West End cast and the current 2024/25 cast and they are an incredibly talented bunch. Mincemeat is a super hard show to dream cast for because of the various different skills the performers need to have (comedic timing, singing, dancing, rapping, multi-roling, etc) but also an incredibly fun one because of the gender bent casting. You can basically cast anyone in the roles (with the exceptions being Monty and Hester who always have to be played by someone female presenting and male presenting respectively).
Ewen Montagu & Others: Liv Andrusier
I first saw Liv Andrusier as Annie Londonderry in Ride at the Southwark Playhouse Elephant last year and she was just incredible. She has such a great confidence and bravado in that role that Monty in Mincemeat just seems like it would be a perfect fit for her. She not only has an incredible voice, but she did quite a bit of accent work and different characters in Ride for other characters involved in Annie’s story and had quite a few good comic moments in that show. I would love to see what she does with Monty and the various other characters in that track.
Charles Cholmondeley & Others: Bronté Barbé
So far Operation Mincemeat has only cast male actors as Charles, but the gender bent casting is built into the show’s DNA so theoretically Charles could be played by a woman. I would love to see Bronté in the role. In fact, all of the Kathy & Stella cast would probably do quite well in Mincemeat really thanks to the overlaps between the two shows with both being comedy musicals with small tight knit ensembles and actors taking on multiple roles (though Bronté did not as she was Kathy in the show). Bronté’s character in that show definitely gives off very similar vibes to Charles as she is an anxious over-thinker who always wants to have a plan and has to try and reign in her more reckless friend. I reckon this is a role she would be able to fit into quite well and I would love to see how Charles also being played by a woman would change the dynamic between him and Monty.
Johnny Bevan & Others: Martha Howe-Douglas
Out of the five, Bevan is probably the hardest to cast as the Bevan track requires a slightly different skill set than the others with the rapping involved. There wasn’t an actor who immediately came to mind for Bevan like there was for the other four. Then I thought of the team behind Horrible Histories, who would all honestly be incredible in Mincemeat, coming from a sketch comedy background as they do. I think Martha Howe-Douglas would be a brilliant Bevan. He’s very buttoned up and serious (not unlike Fanny, her character from Ghosts) and I know she’s brilliant at playing a multitude of different characters with various different accents as she has done across most of her shows. I reckon she could pull out an absolutely genius and hilarious Haselden and Fleming too! She’s not done any stage work before, but I know she can sing from Horrible Histories so I reckon this would be a really fun show to see her in.
Hester Leggatt & Others: Gabriel Vick
Gabriel Vick is without a doubt the best part of Mrs Doubtfire (the musical) and a lot of the skills he utilises in that show would make him great in Operation Mincemeat as well: he’s fabulous with different accents, he’s very funny and used to doing a lot of quick changes. Hester is obviously a different vibe to Mrs Doubtfire. She’s more outrageous and Hester is definitely quieter and more introspective but he does have some quieter numbers as Daniel when not in character as Mrs Doubtfire that make me think he could also pull off Hester. He would definitely excel at all the quick changes between characters.
Jean Leslie & Others: Carly Mercedes Dyer
Carly Mercedes Dyer was such a scene stealer and so incredibly funny in Anything Goes as Erma, she was my favourite part of that show so I’d love to see her in another comedic role. I did consider putting her down for Monty but her voice seems slightly more suited for Jean. She’d deliver a powerful ‘All The Ladies’ for sure and I would love to see her take on some of the sillier characters in the Jean track, like Steve as her role in Anything Goes seems to indicate she would be very good at and have a lot of fun with those.
Words By Jo Elliott
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