What is going on with Operation Mincemeat’s Broadway reviews? 

After a glorious spell off-West End and on-West End, picking up WhatsOnStage and Olivier Awards, SpitLip’s histo-comedy musical Operation Mincemeat has transferred to Broadway.

Playing at the John Golden Theatre (double the size of the show’s London home at the Fortune Theatre), Mincemeat reunites its original London cast for New York audiences.

Cards on the table – of all those scores of five-star reviews that the show amassed in the UK, WhatsOnStage was its first – so we’re coming into this one with a degree of sideline support.

But what about now across the Atlantic? Amidst a small flurry of clamour about whether the show is “too British for Broadway”, the critics have finally been in to see Mincemeat – and their results are in.

Top level summary: the write-ups are largely positive. David Gordon of our sibling parish TheaterMania called the show “a highlight of the season”, singling out Jak Malone’s number “Dear Bill” as “one of the most poignant musical-theatre ballads in recent memory.”

Other writers are equally enthusiastic: Frank Rizzo in Variety applauds the show’s “comic madness and theatrical joy”, while Sara Holdren in Vulture says Mincemeat is “vivaciously silly and a quite charming musical”.

The greatest voice of dissent is therefore Jesse Green in the New York Times, who says it is “diverting if irksome” and that its 150-minute runtime is “hardly svelt.” The cut-and-thrust of Green’s opinion is that the show’s humour, tapping into the sensibilities of Monty Python or Mischief Comedy, isn’t as sharp or satirical as it needs to be, ending up more scattershot than it could be. Green does, admittedly, singling out the “gorgeous effect” of “Dear Bill.”

Another snooty write-up came from the famously contrarian New York Post, suggesting the show is “an often tiring wallop of frenetic hyperactivity” with some “witty lines.”

Humour is incredibly subjective and, if Green simply wasn’t on board with the comedy, there’s not really a lot more that could have been done. Other writers at the same publication have previously given the show an enthusiastic thumbs up.

Perhaps something deeper is going on here, however, around this little show that could. In London, Mincemeat was the plucky upstart off-West End hit that became a national sensation. The UK theatre industry was rooting for it to succeed. On Broadway, however, it arrives heavily garlanded and swaddled in major awards – the darling of the West End now trying to make it on the bright lights of Broadway.

The conversation for US critics, especially those in New York who have a penchant for raising an eyebrow at British-made productions, is a different one – so the reactions might well be too.

We caught up with the cast on a recent episode of the WhatsOnStage Podcast, which you can listen for free here:

The podcast can be listened to on various streaming platforms – including Apple Podcasts and Audible. Make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode!