Five Actors, 87 Characters: Meet the Cast Taking Operation Mincemeat on Tour

Five actors. 87 characters. One dead body. Operation Mincemeat is taking its gloriously improbable true story on the road. The Olivier-winning musical launches its North American tour with Mariah Copeland as Johnny Bevan and others, Katie Kleiger as Ewen Montague and others, Luke Antony Neville as Hester Leggatt and others, Erin Ramirez as Jean Leslie and others and Jake Bentley Young as Charles Cholmondeley and others. Broadway.com caught up with the intelligence officers in rehearsal to talk about becoming a troupe of "whimsical clowns," pulling off the impossible and unleashing this very British brand of chaos across the country.

Need the mission briefing? Young has been perfecting his elevator pitch. “This show is the ridiculously bafflingly true story of a group of British secret agents who utilize a dead body to pull off perhaps the greatest deception mission in recent memory,” he says. “It helps them win the Second World War. Not a lot of people know this story.”

Ramirez, who previously toured with Les Misérables, Hamilton and SIX: The Musical, loves how quickly Mincemeat can turn belly laughs into something much more tender. “I am always so impressed by any movie or story or play or musical where you are able to both laugh hysterically and cry, sometimes honestly at the same time,” she says. “It's able to take you to both of those places.”

Neville, meanwhile, is still marveling at how five people manage to create the whole madcap world. “I love that you can't quite believe that there are five people on stage alone,” he says. “I love that it's so fast-paced, but it's got so much heart to it. It's so funny, but it's so emotional too.” Copeland has an even simpler explanation for the show’s appeal: “I love that it's relentless in its pursuit of fun.”

Relentless is also an apt description of rehearsals. With five actors ping-ponging between dozens of characters, costumes, props and accents, there isn’t much time to catch your breath. Luckily, Neville says the company is uniquely suited to the assignment. “It is a group of clowns in the best way,” he says. “We've all really had to have each other's backs because this show doesn't stop.”

That trust is essential to Copeland, who sees a satisfying parallel between the real life mission and the theatrical feat happening every night. “The great thing when you're watching the show is five people are pulling off an impossible task.” That shared mission has quickly bonded the company. “It has been one of the best rehearsal processes I've ever been through because we're really—even through the tough days—laughing every day, helping each other, always offering a hand.”

For Kleiger, who is heading out on her first national tour, bringing the show to audiences who can’t necessarily get to Broadway makes the adventure even sweeter. “Not everyone in the country can come out to New York City,” she says. “So the fact that we're able to bring the shows to them is astounding.”

Young knows exactly what that can mean. Growing up in Sacramento, touring Broadway productions were his gateway into professional theater. “Every time I feel exhausted in rehearsal or just tired from the day, I always harken back to when I was a kid, eight or nine years old and watching West Side Story with my dad or whatever it was,” he says. “It feels very full circle. It reminds me of the importance of touring musical theater, especially in a time like this.” Now, he and his castmates get to be that introduction for someone else, while attempting the impossible in a city near you.

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