The Tony and Olivier-Award winning musical Operation Mincemeat comes to Chicago on it’s National Tour. Reporter Sophia Casa had the chance to speak with one of the show’s five actors. Photo by Justin Barbin.
[“Born to Lead” from Operation Mincemeat]
Operation Mincemeat tells the unbelievably true story of a World War II British Intelligence mission. With a cast of 5 actors portraying 87 characters, the show is part over-the-top farce, part spy thriller, and an all-around impressive theatrical balancing act. The production has been wowing audiences both in its original West End and later Broadway productions, and now, the show arrives in Chicago as part of its national tour. Cast member Mariah Copeland plays Johnny Bevan & Others. She is a Northwestern alum and Chicago native. Here is our conversation.
CASA: There are many musicals about our past, The Hello Girls and Hamilton sort of come to mind, but sort of what would you say sets Operation Mincemeat apart from this wide range of Broadway history offerings?
MARIAH COPELAND: Oh, I really love that question. The thing I always say about the show is I’ve never seen a show that is so relentless in surprises and having fun. There are some very far lengths we go to, to tell a very fast joke. And we do that over and over and over again. And there is so much of the true story that’s being told that really is unbelievable stuff. The writers told us when they did this for the first few times, they actually cut a lot of stuff because even though it was true, people didn’t believe it and they would get distracted.
I think it’s hard sometimes to make historical musical theater shows really funny the whole time and I think that this show takes what is so goofy and silly about the true story and makes it very Monty Python.
CASA: So sort of on this note of this sort of relentless pace, I mean one of the main things about the show is, you know, there’s five actors, you all play 87 characters.So can you tell me a little bit about how you guys keep track of this?
COPELAND: Learning the show was really interesting. So much of it is physicality. Usually when you’re in any kind of stage show, you have a second before to like, do a little warm up and in this show, you just have to prep yourself to be really malleable and do those things at the drop of a hat. And so we spend a lot of time really figuring out what does this person look like? What does this person sound like? How do we want the audience to feel when they’re getting the information? And then you kind of just practice the machine of like, getting in and getting out so fast. But because we practice those shapes and those sounds, the more we do it makes it easier to fall into, but when we were in rehearsal, there were a few times where we ran the show for the first time, and I would do a different character’s voice when I was somebody else.
CASA: Oh my God.
COPELAND: And I wouldn’t even realize that the director would be like, ‘you’re actually using Haselden’s voice right now.’ And I’d be like, ‘oh my God.’ But that has never happened to me before, because I’ve never done a show this fast before. But it’s a fun time.
CASA: What’s one lesson you learned at Northwestern theater or not that stayed with you?
COPELAND: Something that’s really unique about theater at Northwestern is there’s so much student produced, student run work there. And that’s not true everywhere. What is really cool about that is, when you’re younger and you’re in the entertainment industry, you sort of get this impression of like, OK, I have to impress, you know, really impressive higher up kind of people to get me in the industry and I have to network with them and all that stuff. But it really is like you rise up with your peers and your colleagues. And that’s something that I learned really early on going to Northwestern and like making things with the people I was in classes with. And I still work with a lot of people who I worked with at Northwestern and people always told me like, oh, you’re going to do that. And I was kind of like, yeah, sure, whatever. Like that’s like a very nice like alumni post, you can say. But I don’t know if that’s true, but it’s been very true.
My husband did theater with me at Northwestern. The photographer we had last night for the show is a photographer who took pictures of me when I was in shows at Northwestern. Like it really is a beautiful network.
CASA: That’s lovely! So my last question for you, you are from Chicago. Can you tell me a little bit about what theater here in the city, you know, sort of inspired you to pursue acting?
COPELAND:I was actually homeschooled for a long time. And so like one of the things I just had a lot of free time and one of the things I did to entertain myself a lot was just like listen to a lot of my mom’s like musical CDs and like VHS tapes she had of like Into the Woods
CASA: Nice.
COPELAND: And like Les Mis and things like that. And she would take me and my aunts and uncles and grandparents would take me to shows, you know, that were coming through and touring here and it’s been so cool being here and doing a show that I love so much here because I think a lot of what I’ve learned over time and what has inspired me over time have been like performances that I remember seeing here in the theater we’re in now. I’m really lucky that I have like high school teachers who are coming and, you know, my friends from growing up who were the people who taught me how to read music and stand on a stage and all of these really fundamental things that have carried me through my career. And I’ve gotten more advanced training and more, you know, whatever. But, you know, this is the place and the people who built me and getting to perform in your hometown is like a really, really cool thing that I’m really grateful for.
CASA: Well, thank you so much for talking with me today.
COPELAND: Yeah, thank you. I appreciate it.
[“Born to Lead” from Operation Mincemeat]
Operation Mincemeat runs at the CIBC Theater from now until October 11th.
For WNUR News, I’m Sophia Casa.
