War! Music! Feminism! Glittery Nazis! Social commentary on privilege and wealth inequality! Camp cadaver-merchants! Unexpected Welsh hiraeth! And of course… Martinis.

I was invited last minute to a showing of the highly acclaimed musical Operation Mincemeat. Reader, I cannot recommend it enough.

The event has been performed at a number of venues including the Southwark Playhouse, but has now been running for longer at the Fortune Theatre than anywhere else. The venue is an unassuming little art deco beauty just off Drury Lane in London’s West End.

The Story

Without giving too much away, Operation Mincemeat surrounds a plan to trick Nazi Germany into thinking that the Allied invasion of Italy from North Africa was going to be launched via Sardinia rather than the intended route through Sicily. The Nazis would then divert their troops over to Sardinia leaving Sicily more vulnerable to an Allied attack.

Critically, the scheme involved the morally-ambiguous ploy of planting false details of the spoof invasion on a real human body with a fake identity. The body was then to be placed surreptitiously within reach of the Nazis for hopeful interception without raising any suspicion.

The Event

Frequently hilarious, occasionally quite touching and logistically very impressive, the performance was made even more special by the inclusion of martinis in the bar menu.

The drinks are specifically named in honour of Sir Ian Fleming, the author of the universally known Bond novels.

James Bond famously liked his martinis made with vodka (risqué during the Cold War) and shaken with ice (rather than the more traditional stirring method).

Fleming features quite heavily in the show, because, somewhat surprisingly, he was distinctively involved in the wartime scheme itself.

Historian Ben MacIntyre actually believes that he was responsible for collating the list of wildcard ideas for thwarting the Nazi war effort (contained in the Trout Memo), of which Operation Mincemeat was the most successful. The document was actually issued under the name of Fleming’s superior, Admiral John Godfrey but MacIntyre’s hypothesis is both compelling and retold comedically in the musical.

The Bar

The Fleming martinis at the theatre bar are made with Belvedere vodka and vermouth – shaken of course – and served with olives. You can also request a dirty martini if preferred. What a wonderful surprise!

The bar was fairly busy so I asked the server if she thought it would be a bit of a faff to mix me up a silver bullet before the show.

She enthusiastically reassured me that it would be absolutely fine and mixed me one quick. The fact that she was Scottish reassured me further. She also recommended that I pre-ordered my next drink for the interval, so naturally I took her recommendation and ordered another martini for round two. This time, however, I requested a dirty martini for comparative research purposes.

The Experience

I’m not sure if many other people had actually considered ordering a martini at the bar. Most of the other orders seemed to be glasses of wine. However, when I walked past the queue with my fresh, glittering martini in hand I heard more than one gasp of surprise from onlookers. It was obviously THE drink to have at the show and now people had seen one in the flesh, they knew everything else would pale in comparison. It looked great, it tasted lovely and it made the entire experience feel all the more immersive.

What a treat to sit and await the beginning of the show with a loving sip. But please forgive my photo quality. The lighting was low and I was taking the photo one-handed!

The first act of the show was brilliant from start to finish. I am not normally a fan of musicals but this one was funny, extremely well-researched and with exceptional delivery, especially considering the small number of cast members and high number of characters, all changing with considerable frequency.

When I returned to the bar at the interval my fresh, dirty martini was waiting dutifully for round two. And I probably needed it for the Fascist R&B dance-pop that kicked off the second act.

Considering the Drink

I think I preferred the dirty variation as the martinis were relatively sweet due to the vermouth ratio. The brine added a pleasant amount of savouryness.

Otherwise though, the amount of vermouth used means that if you are new to martinis either version would be a wonderful introduction to the drink because they would be much less dry or fiery than, say, the martinis preferred by hardened connoisseur Dear Churchill.

He liked his gin neat. Perhaps it was a preference, but let’s not forget that vermouth was simply unavailable during World War Two given what the frequently teetotaller Nazis were up to in the Vermouth Riviera.

I would also usually prefer my martini stirred, or better than that, served with the vodka fresh from the freezer but I was more than happy to go with the Fleming version for the show. The reassuring bar tender had certainly shaken it to a nice temperature on the warm evening.

Using the Freezer

That being said, I would very dearly like more people to enjoy the musical with a chilly martini in their hand, but if many more audience members ordered the drink it might become a bit of an effort for the already hard-working staff members.

As such, I would recommend that they keep their Belvedere vodka in the freezer at least for six hours before the curtain goes up. That would make the drink much, much colder. It would also involve far less vigorous (or time consuming) shaking.

The bar could even consider pre-mixing the martinis and again, storing the bottles in the freezer to keep them cold, although note that if you pre-mix the vodka and vermouth it will be more liable to freeze at least partially if it is in the freezer for more than a few hours.

Nonetheless, a freezer on the premises could make it logistically a lot easier to serve a much larger number of vodka elixirs. Even if it is not located in the bar itself, but somewhere else on the premises it could still be highly useful.

The bottles do not need to stay in the freezer once the bar is open. They can stay in a chill box or even in the fridge and will keep their cool for an hour or two, which will be plenty of time to serve up multiple martinis for your eager and no doubt delighted audience members.

Enjoy the Show

So, if you’re heading to see Operation Mincemeat the musical, be sure to order yourself a martini on arrival, as well as a second martini for the interval.

Then enjoy the performance! You are very much in for a treat. You can buy your tickets here.

The show has received several five star reviews and at the time of writing has been extended out past the summer and into the autumn. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was running well past that.

If you want to know more about the story, a book depicting the incredible operation was penned by the excellent Ben MacIntyre – he comes with many recommendations and wrote the gin soaked and thoroughly enjoyable true story of one of Britain’s most notorious spies – Kim Philby.

So go, and enjoy.

Iechyd da!