On Sunday Feb. 22, the Broadway League announced that all evening performances that started after 6 p.m. would be canceled as a result of the snowstorm hitting the city. The League’s initial press release noted one exception: “Operation Mincemeat.” Sunday evening was to be the final performance of its original Broadway cast. The show had, in fact, added the evening performance earlier this month to accommodate fans who had been unable to get a ticket to the matinée.
By 1 p.m. on Feb. 22, the show’s producers had announced that “Operation Mincemeat,” too, would have to cancel its evening show at the John Golden Theatre due to the blizzard and city travel bans. Instead, the original cast and the incoming all-American cast performed an encore of “Sail On, Boys” during the matinée curtain call. Then, the original company offered a livestream concert version with select songs from the musical. It was broadcast from the Laurie Beechman Theatre via the show’s Instagram feed. The concert streamed on YouTube, as well.
“It’s been quite a day,” “Mincemeat” co-creator and star Natasha Hodgson said at the start of the stream. “The bloody, bloody blizzard,” she and fellow castmates David Cumming, Claire-Marie Hall, Tony Award winner Jak Malone and Zoë Roberts repeated.
“For those of you tuning in, this is all for you,” Hodgson said. “We just couldn’t bear the thought that you didn’t get to hear us sing the songs live one more time.”
Beginning Feb. 24, the new cast of “Operation Mincemeat,” will star 2025 Tony Award nominee Julia Knitel alongside Jeff Kready, Brandon Contreras, Jessi Kirtley and Amanda Jill Robinson.
Based on a true story, “Operation Mincemeat” follows a group of MI5 agents as they devise a plan to fool the Nazis into believing the Allies were not going to invade Sicily. Directed by Robert Hastie, the musical features a Tony Award-nominated book and score by SpitLip. The production was also nominated for a Tony for Best Musical.
“Operation Mincemeat” is produced on Broadway by Avalon in association with SpitLip.
