Operation Mincemeat UK and Ireland tour adds Coventry as the Broadway hit goes global

The Belgrade Theatre in Coventry has been added to the UK and Ireland tour of Operation Mincemeat, the SpitLip musical about the wartime deception that fooled Hitler with a corpse and a briefcase of fake papers. The show plays the Belgrade from 12–16 October 2027, one of more than 30 stops on a tour with published dates through to November 2027.

The Coventry week joins a production that is no longer just a London story. Alongside the British and Irish dates, the show is on Broadway, touring North America, heading to Australia in 2027 and preparing a tour of China. Avalon presents the UK and Ireland tour in association with SpitLip.

A homegrown hit, from an Olivier win to Broadway

The musical began life at the New Diorama Theatre in 2019, then built its following through sold-out runs at Southwark Playhouse and a summer run at Riverside Studios before it transferred to the Fortune Theatre in 2023. It is written and composed by SpitLip, the company formed by David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts, and directed by Robert Hastie.

The London production won the 2024 Olivier Award for Best New Musical and a WhatsOnStage Award the same year. It then crossed the Atlantic, opening at the John Golden Theatre on Broadway on 20 March 2025. At the 2025 Tony Awards it picked up four nominations, including Best Musical, Best Book and Best Original Score, and Jak Malone won Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical.

What is the musical about?

It is 1943 and the Allies need to convince the enemy that their next landing will not be in Sicily. A small, mismatched team of British intelligence officers comes up with an outlandish plan: dress a dead man as an officer, plant misleading secret documents on him and let the sea wash him ashore in Spain, where the papers would find their way to German hands.

The story is true, and the show plays it as a fast, funny and unexpectedly moving mix of farce, thriller and spy caper. A cast of five swaps between dozens of characters, among them the intelligence officers Ewen Montagu and Charles Cholmondeley, the secretary Hester Leggatt and the young recruit Jean Leslie, all racing to make a dead man's fake identity believable and change the course of the war.

The full UK and Ireland tour dates

The tour's published dates begin in October 2026, and it has been extended through 2027, when it returns to several cities it visited in its first year. The official dates are:

2026

• Arts Theatre, Cambridge: 19–24 October 2026
• Victoria Theatre, Halifax: 26–31 October 2026
• King's Theatre, Edinburgh: 2–7 November 2026
• Theatre Royal Glasgow: 10–14 November 2026
• Mayflower Theatre, Southampton: 17–21 November 2026
• The Hawth, Crawley: 23–28 November 2026

2027

• Orchard Theatre, Dartford: 23–27 February 2027
• Milton Keynes Theatre: 2–6 March 2027
• Theatre Royal Bath: 9–20 March 2027
• Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham: 23 March to 3 April 2027
• Empire Theatre, Sunderland: 6–10 April 2027
• Hippodrome, Darlington: 20–24 April 2027
• Theatre Royal Brighton: 27 April to 1 May 2027
• Lowry, Salford: 11–22 May 2027
• Hall for Cornwall, Truro: 1–5 June 2027
• Kings Theatre, Portsmouth: 8–12 June 2027
• Grand Theatre, Blackpool: 15–19 June 2027
• Eden Court, Inverness: 22–26 June 2027
• King's Theatre, Edinburgh: 29 June to 3 July 2027
• Theatre Royal Glasgow: 6–10 July 2027
• New Theatre Oxford: 13–17 July 2027
• Waterside Theatre, Aylesbury: 20–24 July 2027
• Theatre Royal Nottingham: 27–31 July 2027
• Grand Theatre, Leeds: 3–7 August 2027
• Grand Opera House, Belfast: 10–14 August 2027
• Dublin (venue to be announced): 17–21 August 2027
• The Alexandra, Birmingham: 24–28 August 2027
• New Theatre, Cardiff: 14–18 September 2027
• Woking Theatre: 21–25 September 2027
• Grand Opera House, York: 28 September to 2 October 2027
• Empire Theatre, Liverpool: 5–9 October 2027
• Belgrade Theatre, Coventry: 12–16 October 2027
• Curve, Leicester: 19–23 October 2027
• Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield: 26–30 October 2027
• Arts Theatre, Cambridge: 2–6 November 2027
• Alhambra Theatre, Bradford: 9–13 November 2027
• Mayflower Theatre, Southampton: 16–20 November 2027

The production's official site lists a pre-sale for the Dublin dates on 11 November, with the venue still to be named.

The touring cast and creative team

The official tour site lists the touring company as Christian Andrews, Seán Carey, Katy Ellis, Georgina Hagen, Charlotte Hanna-Williams, Jamie-Rose Monk, Jordan Pearson, Morgan Phillips and Holly Sumpton, sharing roles including Hester Leggatt, Ewen Montagu, Charles Cholmondeley, Jean Leslie and Johnny Bevan.

Robert Hastie directs, with choreography by Jenny Arnold, set and costume design by Ben Stones, lighting by Mark Henderson, sound by Mike Walker and orchestrations and vocal arrangements by Steve Sidwell. Joe Bunker is musical supervisor, Georgie Staight is tour director and casting is by Pearson Casting. The tour's musical director is Sam Sommerfeld.

Broadway, North America, Australia and China

The Broadway production continues at the Golden Theatre on West 45th Street, where tickets have been released for performances up to 25 April 2027. For Broadway tickets more widely, see Broadway tickets on tickadoo.

After a run at the Colonial Theatre in Boston, a separate North American tour moves to the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto from 27 October to 13 December 2026, then to Philadelphia for a December run. In 2027 it visits cities including Columbus, Detroit, Minneapolis, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Washington DC and Atlanta, with the current schedule running until the end of July in Fort Worth.

Australia follows in 2027. The official site confirms that the first stop of the Australian leg will be Melbourne's Comedy Theatre in September 2027, with further cities to follow. A China tour is also listed on the official site, with dates still to be announced.

How to see the show in the UK

The official site carries the full list of dates and venues for 2026 and 2027, including sign-up for the Dublin pre-sale. Our page for the Operation Mincemeat UK tour has dates and tickets for the tour.

For more on the show's London journey, read our five-star review from the Fortune Theatre.

Header image: Official Operation Mincemeat artwork (operationbroadway.com)