“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” actress Julia Knitel says of starring in the British spy musical Operation Mincemeat. She describes it as “if Noises Off and Hamilton had a baby.” Knitel recently stepped into the role of Ewen Montagu and others, taking over for Natasha Hodgson, one of the coauthors of the show, at the John Golden Theatre.
“I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell everyone, because everybody says I make it look so easy,” she tells Broadway Direct. Knitel admits it’s a lot of work playing multiple characters with nonstop quick costume changes on stage. The never-ending props feel like science and a showstopper in themselves.
The musical, created by the British comedy troupe SpitLip, follows a five-person cast playing 87 different roles as they navigate a high-stakes farce. It tells the true story of a 1943 top-secret British intelligence plot to trick Nazi Germany using a body and fake documents. Since its debut in London in 2019, the show has become a global sensation, winning the Olivier Award for Best New Musical in 2024 and earning four Tony nominations in 2025. Knitel is one of a handful of actors—with Brandon Contreras, Jessi Kirtley, Jeff Kready, and Amanda Jill Robinson—to join Mincemeat as its first all-American replacement cast.
Unknowingly, Knitel has been preparing for this magnitude of a performance her entire career. She played Carole King in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical on Broadway and around the country, portrayed multiple characters in Come From Away’s second year of its national tour, and eight different parts in her Tony Award–nominated turn in Dead Outlaw.
“Last year with Dead Outlaw, I was the picture of femininity. It was soft and quiet, and it made people lean in. One year later, I get to be on the stage as obnoxious and loud and big and manspready as Montagu is,” she says. “It’s so nice that I’ve been given such diverse opportunities to flex my muscles and to just bring my whole self to something in an entirely different way.”
Knitel’s journey to Mincemeat actually began at a stylist appointment during last year’s Tony Award season. Knitel was being fitted for dresses for the prestigious Rainbow Room luncheon when Hodgson, the show’s writer and original Montagu, walked in for her appointment. Hodgson told Knitel that she had just seen Dead Outlaw and turned to her costar to say Knitel is a Montagu. “This is the first thing Tash ever sent to me,” Knitel says with a laugh. “And I was like, ‘Well, that’s cool. I saw your show. I would love to play this part.’”
Little did she know how intense the part would be. The difficulty isn’t just in the script; it’s in the complex staging. Knitel explains that the speed of the show requires precision choreography with props and costumes. “You have to grab the cup like this so you can flip it that way for the next person,” she says. “Everything is like science.”
Knitel describes the rehearsal process like a math problem. It began with working one-on-one with the directing team to understand the “nitty-gritty” of the characters she plays, including Montagu, the engine of the show. Then came the props. “Props are a whole other level,” Knitel explains. “It’s not just holding a phone — it’s grabbing the top part where the ear goes specifically so the next person can catch and flip it. Truly like Simon Says. Twister.”
Finally, they added the costumes. Unlike most shows where you might have one “put-in” rehearsal, Mincemeat required a dedicated costume tech day just for the new cast. They rehearsed in full hair and makeup specifically to master the art of whipping hats on and off without ruining a wig, and practiced quick changes where cast members rip pieces of their costumes off.
Offstage, Knitel shares a special bond with costar Jessi Kirtley, a 2019 Jimmy Awards finalist. Knitel was in the inaugural 2009 class of the Jimmy Awards, also famously known as the National High School Musical Theatre Awards. At the time, she didn’t tell anyone that she had already booked her Broadway debut in a revival of Bye Bye Birdie starring John Stamos and Gina Gershon. “I was very intimidated by all these [other teens],” Knitel admits, noting that rehearsals started the week after the Jimmys. “I always consider myself an actor first, and everyone’s voices were so incredible that I was sort of like, ‘You know what? You go!’ I sort of hid in the background. I was a little shy back then.”
Last year, Knitel attended to present an award. “It knocked my socks off. These children are wildly talented, and the program is so singular. Now, it is such a launching pad for people’s careers, which is just incredible to watch.”
Bye Bye Birdie was Knitel’s first professional audition at 16 years old. She grew up in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, in a performing-arts household. Her parents ran a community theater program called St. Anne’s Stages, which now performs at the Fair Lawn Community Center. But they never offered their daughter the lead. “My parents were very keen on keeping me humble,” she says, laughing and noting she only played ensemble roles throughout her childhood.
Knitel’s dad agreed to take her to the Birdie open call, where she sang “Not for the Life of Me” from Thoroughly Modern Millie. “I got typed in, got to sing for [casting director] Kate Boka, who changed my life. I ended up booking it, which was literally the craziest thing that’s ever happened to me. All my dreams came true,” she recalls of also taking on the role of dance captain.
Nearly 20 years later, Knitel has realized that “Broadway is the same thing as community theater,” she says. “There’s just a little more money, more pressure, and a bigger audience. But it’s all the same art form.”
Even on Broadway, mistakes happen on stage every night at Mincemeat, given the volume of staging intricacies. “The audience loves that stuff. It’s a lesson in instant forgiveness.” The love for Operation Mincemeat has grown so much that one fan has been awarded a lifetime supply of theater tickets to any production of the show around the world.
“It’s a testament to the message of the show,” Knitel says of the Mincefluencers. ”I think people, especially in America right now, need feel-good entertainment, need to see fascism lose, need to have that catharsis that really can only happen in the theatre, where this moment is ephemeral.”
