Julia Knitel on Suiting Up for Broadway’s Operation Mincemeat and Her Surprising Dream Role

Julia Knitel is manning up. A 2025 Tony nominee for Dead Outlaw, Knitel is playing brash naval officer Ewan Montagu, among other characters, in Broadway’s historical musical comedy Operation Mincemeat. Speaking with Broadway.com Managing Editor Beth Stevens, Knitel discusses her history with the production, embracing spontaneity and the gender-bending roles she'd like to tackle next.

Both Dead Outlaw and Operation Mincemeat involve a corpse, with the latter dramatizing a deception operation carried out by the British army during World War II. “I have found my niche,” jokes Knitel. “It seems that if there's a dead body on stage, I'll be there.”

Her path to Mincemeat began well before she joined the cast. “Before we knew if Dead Outlaw was coming [to Broadway], I got an audition for the offstage cover [in Operation Mincemeat], and I knew that I would get to do it once a week. They wanted me to come to New York for the final callback,” she shares. “Then that week I found out about Dead Outlaw. So I pulled myself out of the running, but I had this sort of star in my eye for the role. When I got back into town, I bought myself a ticket and as soon as the glitzy finale hit, I said, ‘I don't know how, I don't know when, I don't know where, but I have to play this part.”

Knitel got to know the Operation Mincemeat company during the 2025 awards season. “I felt like a new kid on the block," she says. "I found myself connecting with Mincemeat because they were also new.” 

“This show has been a blessing and a curse to my perfectionism because something can and will go wrong every night," says Knitel of the show's unpredictability. “It's a really good lesson in going with the flow and following the tides as they turn.”

Playing Montagu presented a different challenge. “It was a unique challenge with this part because I have to present as a man and you want the audience to accept that. It's not a joke that I'm a man. I am a man from the moment the lights come up,” she says. “It was really important to me to find authenticity and truth in that, and then also to have the bandwidth for a lot of play and exploration and fun.”

Knitel has taken some of Montagu offstage. “I think Montagu is really unapologetic and knows who he is and knows what he wants. I think a lot of the time Julia could use a little more of that," she admits. "I've been trying to incorporate some of his boldness, some of his confidence, some of his groundedness into my daily life.” However, Knitel draws the line at manspreading. “That is the one thing I will not do. And I will punish a manspreader. I will be like, 'Excuse me, may I sit?’ If there's two inches of space, move your knees together.”

Knitel already has another male role in mind: Elder Price in The Book of Mormon, previously played by her Mincemeat castmate Nic Rouleau. “I've been shouting it from the rooftops. Book of Mormon, call me. I want to play Elder Price. I really do. I can sing it in [original Broadway cast member] Andrew Rannells' key. It's made for me.” Victor/Victoria is also on Knitel's wish list. “I've had my eye on Victor/Victoria just because I love Julie Andrews so much, and I love the play on gender.”

A self-described "woo-woo" person, Knitel believes in the power of manifestation. “I'm a big manifestor because I've seen it work throughout my life," she says. "Next, I want to originate again. My goal is always to create something that moves people. I want to connect with people viscerally, emotionally, spiritually. I would love to do something that really gives people a safe space to feel. And I think Mincemeat does a really beautiful job of that. I think Dead Outlaw did a really beautiful job of that. So, whatever comes next, I know will as well.”

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