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Culture Watch: Danny Becker - star of Operation Mincemeat

We go behind-the-scenes of one of the West End's biggest musicals.

Gaydar

10 Jul 2025 — 7 min read

Currently starring in Operation Mincemeat, we caught up with Danny Becker for a behind-the-scenes look at one of the biggest shows in London's West End.

In the conversation on our podcast How To Date Men, we talk pre-show rituals, inspiring women, and why Mr Men have a lot to answer for.

Listen to the episode

Operation Mincemeat is a musical based on a military operation from World War II and you're playing the role of Hester Leggett - a woman who played a key role in the military operation. What can you tell us about Hester Leggett?

Hester, I love her. She is a delightful woman, a complicated woman.

She's in her mid-40s. She's someone that grew up in the Victorian ages, saw herself through World War I. She had this wonderful love affair with this man called Tom, and then finds this job at MI5 and becomes a bit of a spinster.

She's a real life person that the fans of the show hunted down.

When they were creating the show, the writers couldn't find out much about Hester - she was the head of the secretary pool in 1943 which is when our story is centred.

Fans of the show wanted to know more about her and discovered that there was a mistake in the spelling of her last name. Once they'd figured that out, they were able to find all these documents and find out a lot more about her life.

She's just this amazing woman that's kind of got this stiff upper lip, but a heart of gold. And I think you end up falling in love with her throughout the show.

You've touched on how beloved the show has become. I love that the fans refer to themselves as mincefluers - there's a real culture that's built up around it. It opened in 2019 and it's transferred to Broadway. It's won awards. What's it like stepping into the cast of a show that already has that kind of momentum?

I mean, it's really the dream. It's rare to have such great commercial and critical hits these days. It's doing really well. We're selling out most nights. It's on Broadway. They've just announced a world tour. The mincemeat machine is going strong at the moment. and I'm just thrilled to be a little part of it.

I think the only thing is when you're joining something like that, you just don't want to fuck it up, as RuPaul says. Hopefully I haven't and I'm just blessed to be alongside amazing cast-mates who genuinely I learn from every day. They are the most phenomenal actors on and offstage that I've ever worked with. And I just watch them. I find myself watching them and getting lost in their performances. And that's only going to make me better as an actor and hopefully I can rise to their level.

You said that stepping into this kind of role is the dream, but this is something that hasn't come overnight for you. You attended the Brit School of Performing Arts and then went on to do a degree in musical theatre. This is something you've been working towards, isn't it? If this was always the dream, what were some of the formative musicals that made you realise that this was the path that you wanted to follow?

When I was about three years old, my mum took me to see Mr. Men - a musical version of the books. My mum tells the story that as I was watching the show, I was eating ice-cream and I was so transfixed by what was happening on stage that the ice-cream went all down my face.

I think that's the beauty about theatre is that you maybe don't always have to understand exactly what's going on or you don't have to follow the story, but you get an energy and an electricity that is just in the air. I think I realised that very, very early on. I've been obsessed ever since.

But then in my more formative years, I think it was shows such as Wicked and Spring Awakening that really got me hook, line and sinker.

You said that this role in Operation Mincemeat is a career highlight. What are some of the other iconic theatre roles that might still be on your bucket list that you're dreaming of bringing to life on stage someday?

I'd love to originate something. Something like a Hester one day and, you know, discover a new role. But something that already exists out of the big roles - I think it would be cool to like do a Phantom one day. I think he's only got 20 minutes of stage time but you get the title role and you get to wear the cool makeup.

I do have my eye on, on show called Parade. It was on Broadway - Jason Brown - Ben Platt played him on Broadway. If that were to ever come over, I would love to have a crack.

You said that things feel like they're going very well with Operation Mincemeat - that you've got full houses. I was wondering, is that the vibe across London's West End? How is everyone feeling? Is there a sense of optimism and full houses or is economic uncertainty keeping everyone up at night?

It's hard to know fully because in the West End, the producers don't release box office numbers. On Broadway, it's a different question. I think you can literally look it up and you can see how well everything's doing and get kind of an average, but it's hard to tell here. I guess what you can go on is are shows staying open? Because the running costs these days are astronomical. There worse on Broadway, but they're still very high here. And I think things are going pretty well. I think, touch wood, we have got back to a similar place we were before COVID.

As someone that worked through that period - I was attached to the Prince of Egypt at the time - I know how turbulent that was for everyone, and particularly our industry. I think we have got that back, which is great.

I'd love to see more risks being taken in commercial theatre. I think that's what Broadway does very well. Yes, things open and close a lot quicker, but at least there's new blood constantly coming in. Here, I think there aren't as many risks being taken. We have the odd one like Mincemeat, like Benjamin Button, which started off on the fringe. But there's a lot big running shows.

To be honest, as long as there's shows going on, I'm happy. As long as audiences are coming to see it and enjoying themselves and being moved, I think we're doing quite well.

You said that the role of Hester works you pretty hard. What's your pre-show routine? How do you get ready for a performance each time

If it's a 7.30 show, we have to be in at the theatre at 6pm. I normally try and get in at 5.30. I normally just eat dinner around then and start my makeup.

We go down to warm up - we have a mandatory physical and vocal warm up every day. And then we might get some notes. We might have to run some bits because covers are on - understudies are always on in the West End.

Then normally it's just me and my colleague Pete - Pete McGovern, who plays Charles Chumbly. We share a dressing room and we're just kind of chatting, playing some music and just doing our hair and makeup really. It's quite simple. Nothing kind of crazy.

I always pop a little Jakemans sweet before a show - that gets me lubricated. I also put on this lip-salve thing that my mum got me. Those are the two final touches.

Beyond Operation Mincemeat, what does the future hold for Danny Becker?

It's really hard to predict anything in this business, but I guess all I can say is I'm incredibly grateful to be where I am right now. And I just hope more of what I'm doing comes.

I would love to make it over the pond at some point to New York, that's a huge dream of mine. But really, it's just being in more shows and moving more audiences - that would make me very happy.