OPERATION MINCEMEAT to Display Replica Aircraft to Celebrate Fleet Week and America250

The Golden Theater, home to Operation Mincemeat, will unveil a replica of the aircraft flown by Willie “Bill” Watkins, the real-life American pilot featured in the show, to celebrate Fleet Week and America250. He is the only American featured in the production. William Anderson Watkins was a Flight Officer in the US Army Air Corps USAAC. He was born on May 9, 1920, and died in service on December 25, 1943, in Italy, aged 23. He flew a P-39 Bell Airacobra aircraft.

Operation Mincemeat is currently in performances on Broadway, in the West End, and has just launched its world tour, beginning with a UK leg ahead of travelling across the USA beginning October 2026, followed by Canada, Mexico, China, Australia and New Zealand.

The Broadway regiment features Brandon Contreras as ‘Charles Cholmondeley & Others,’ Jessi Kirtley as ‘Jean Leslie & Others,’ Tony Award Nominee Julia Knitel (Dead Outlaw, Beautiful, Bye Bye Birdie) as ‘Ewen Montagu & Others,’ Jeff Kready (Masquerade, The Great Gatsby, Company) as ‘Hester Leggatt & Others,’ and Amanda Jill Robinson as ‘Johnny Bevan & Others.’ The understudies include Robert Ariza, Allison Guinn, Sam Hartley, Gerianne Pérez and Lexi Rabadi.

“It’s not just the best musical I’ve ever seen; it’s the most rewarding theatrical experience I’ve ever had,” said Taffy Brodesser-Akner (The New York Times).

In Operation Mincemeat, it’s 1943, and the Allied Forces are on the ropes. Luckily, they’ve got a trick up their sleeve. Well, not up their sleeve, per se, but rather inside the pocket of a stolen corpse. Equal parts farce, thriller, and Ian Fleming-style spy caper (with an assist from Mr. Fleming himself), Operation Mincemeat tells the wildly improbable and hilarious true story of the covert operation that turned the tide of WWII.