Making a Man Lyrics – Operation Mincemeat
Making a Man Lyrics
A mind that is stronger than iron
That shines like a light in the dark
And a body that could wrestle a lion
And then deal out a witty remark
He has so very many astounding attributes
[JEAN]
He's noble and courageous
[CHARLES]
He looks excellent in suits
[MONTAGU]
Yes!
A seamless blend of dreaminess
[HESTER]
Experience
[CHARLES]
And genius
[MONTAGU]
These are the ingredients you need
When you're making a man
Making a hero
Quick as we can
The nation's in need
Of a marvellous man
A dependable dreamboat
A shining example of what humans can be
So we're making a man
Okay!
Step one, thinking caps on
Gotta pull a fast one, fast on the Hun
Gotta find a corpse
[JEAN, spoken]
A dead man?
[MONTAGU]
Of course!
[CHARLES]
Can we gather a cadaver from the local morgue?
[MONTAGU]
Charles, this is a secret mission
We can't go raising any suspicion
Luckily, I know the perfect man to help us hatch this plan
[COCKNEY Chorus]
Welcome to London!
We're Cockneys
And this is what Cockneys wear
Bodies!
What d'you know about bodies?
[PASSER-BY, spoken]
Nothing at all!
[COCKNEY Chorus]
Well if you need information about expiration
There's only one man that you should call
He knows the ropes, he knows the knives
He knows all ways of ending lives
It's Spilsbury, Spilsbury
Introducing Bernard Spilsbury
[SPILSBURY & COCKNEY CHORUS]
So you say you want the perfect body (Spilsbury)
I've got every kind that you could need (Sir Bernard Spilsbury)
Old ladies to adolescents
In all stages of putrescence
So come inside and see what you can see
So don't delay or they'll decay
Come on, fellas, step this way
And feast your eyes on all my lovely bodies (Spilsbury)
Take a look, I've quite the repertoire (Sir Bernard Spilsbury)
From grandads to old biddies
Young men to little kiddies
You want homicide? Or suicide?
Or can't decide? Well, come inside and see!
[CHARLES, spoken]
Monty, make it stop!
[SPILSBURY]
Mr Roberts, choked on a yoghurt
Mr Beezles, mauled by weasels
If you're after buckets of gore
Here's Brian, he's basically a lung in a drawer
[COMPANY, spoken]
NO!
[SPILSBURY, spoken]
It's just Brian
[MONTAGU]
Bernard, we need a chap who's fresh
Of military age with undamaged flesh
[CHARLES]
So if the Spanish do an autopsy
They certify him 'drowned at sea'
[SPILSBURY & COCKNEY CHORUS]
Have no fear, I'll find your perfect body (Spilsbury)
I get skiploads of these stiffs each and every day (Sir Bernard Spilsbury)
I'll find your dear departed
That we need to get things started
Or my name isn't Bernard Spilsbury
O.B.E
I'll find you your man
[MONTAGU]
Step two, leave a trail of clues
Pack a wallet with receipts so that we can prove
That our Bill had a life, a man about town
Who splashed his cash then drowned
[JEAN]
And they will find that he dined
At the hottest joints with the coolest cats
Swingin' spots with the hotsy-tots
The nightlife's such a thrill
And they will all see our boy
He had such a taste for finery
[CHARLES]
He's dressed to impress
[JEAN]
Wouldn't settle for less
[DRESSMAKER, spoken]
34 round the chest?
[COMPANY]
Only the best for Bill
[COCKNEY, spoken]
Ha'penny for me, Guv'nor?
[MONTAGU, spoken]
What century are you in?
[COCKNEY, spoken]
Yay!
[MONTAGU]
Step three, send Bill to sea
[CHARLES]
Get him all the way to Spain in secrecy
So he can wash ashore and then win us the war
[MONTAGU]
Charles, my genius, take the floor
(spoken)
Now it's a good plan, Charles, but it's got to be approved by every fusty old admiral in this building. Good luck!
[CHARLES, spoken]
Admirals, may I present my idea for the world's first human thermos
[CHARLES & ADMIRALS]
Our Bill will sail by submarine
In a giant thermos, a corpse canteen
Vacuum packed and airtight through and through
(Chop chop!
We've got a lot to do)
Suck out the oxygen so Bill won't rot (What?)
Add dry ice and he won't get hot
When he's on his quest, it's only the best for Bill
[ADMIRAL ONE]
Well, what's it made of?
[CHARLES]
Stainless steel
[ADMIRAL TWO]
Won't it smell?
[CHARLES]
Well, that's why it's sealed
[ADMIRAL THREE]
What about the crew, won't they know there's a corpse aboard?
[ADMIRAL ONE, spoken]
That's a bloody good question
[ADMIRAL TWO, spoken]
Good point
[ADMIRAL THREE, spoken]
I forgot what I said
[JEAN]
We could say that it's equipment
It's a top secret shipment
It's need-to-know
[CHARLES]
Jean, that is brilliant!
[ADMIRAL ONE]
I'm quite impressed
[COMPANY]
Only the best for Bill
[CHARLES, spoken]
Monty, the map with the submarine's course to Huelva on it, have you seen it?
[MONTAGU, spoken]
What?
[CHARLES, spoken]
I was sure that I put it—
Well, the whole file is missing
[MONTAGU, spoken]
It'll turn up
[CHARLES, spoken]
But–
[MONTAGU, spoken]
The crew have their orders
They're going to Spain, Charles. It's not hard
You turn left at France, then it's straight on until you hear maracas!
[CHARLES, spoken]
Monty, that file is confidential
If we've lost it, we could get into serious trouble!
[MONTAGU, sung & CHARLES, spoken]
Charlie, don't be so narrow-minded (But I don't think it's narrow-minded)
Stop fretting about guidelines and rules (This is important, Monty)
Now remember we're His Majesty's finest (But I don't see what it's got to do–)
And regulations are for cowards and fools
[CHARLES, sung]
But Monty, we're responsible for how this thing is done
[MONTAGU]
If we claim the final victory, who cares just how we won?
For when you write the book
My boy, you're off the hook
So just be a man
Cos we're making a hero
[MONTAGU & COMPANY]
Quick as we can
The nation's in need
Of a marvellous man
A dependable dreamboat
A shining example of what humans can be
Making a man
[MONTAGU, spoken]
We're doing well, Charles, but we still don't have that damn body
[CHARLES, spoken]
Yes, I'm aware of that fact, Monty
[MONTAGU, spoken]
I'll call Spilsbury
[CHARLES, spoken]
No! No, please, please don't make me see that man again
[MONTAGU, spoken]
He can't get you, you know?
[CHARLES, spoken]
Horrible, wet hands!
[MONTAGU, spoken]
This is the most secure building in England, alright?
There's no way he can find us here
[SPILSBURY & COMPANY]
Lads, look here, I've found your perfect body (Spilsbury)
Look what fate has landed in our laps (Sir Bernard Spilsbury)
This homeless chap in Croydon
Accidentally ate rat poison
The perfect worm to bait our little trap
[MONTAGU, spoken]
He's perfect
[CHARLES]
So he didn't drown?
[SPILSBURY]
Don't worry about it!
[CHARLES]
Won't they suspect?
[SPILSBURY]
Ha! I doubt it
Foreigners aren't great coroners, see
And no-one in Spain is as clever as me
I've found your man, I've saved the day
So fetch my fee and I'll be on my way
[MONTAGU, spoken]
Really makes you wonder about the security of the building, doesn't it?
[HESTER, spoken]
Sirs, I've finished your documentation. Our pilot officially exists
[MONTAGU, spoken]
And the good news is we have a body!
[HESTER, spoken]
You've got a body?
[MONTAGU, spoken]
Cooling in the freezer as we speak
[HESTER, spoken]
And who was he?
[MONTAGU, spoken]
Oh well, this is the best part
[CHARLES, spoken]
Monty–
[MONTAGU, spoken]
He was just some tramp
[HESTER, spoken]
Excuse me?
[JEAN, spoken]
Monty!
[MONTAGU, spoken]
Spilsbury got him off the street
No family, no-one to raise the alarm when he's gone
It's perfect!
[BEVAN, spoken]
Where is Montagu?
[MONTAGU, spoken]
Oh good
[BEVAN, spoken]
I did not hand you His Majesty's cheque book so that you could spend hundreds of pounds on jewellery, cocktails, theatre tickets—
[MONTAGU, spoken]
The things I do for this country
[BEVAN, spoken]
You are out of control
[MONTAGU, spoken]
Johnny, we need the receipts for Bill's wallet, alright?
[BEVAN]
Do you really think you're working independently?
Or that your little team's the only thing that's under me?
The notion that you're more than a drop in the ocean
Of the hundred plans I have in motion is enough to earn demotion
Montagu, this war is bigger than you
[MONTAGU]
Please stop acting like I don't know what to do
[BEVAN]
You're making a mockery of this whole damn operation
[MONTAGU]
You are making a mess of every decision that you're making
[BEVAN]
You're making a spectacle
[MONTAGU]
Well, you're making it difficult to be sensible
[BEVAN]
You're making it about you 'cause you're bloody egotistical
[COMPANY]
Oh my god
[MONTAGU, spoken]
John, wait. Just let me explain. Picture the scene
(sung)
A bachelor residing in Oval
[JEAN]
Here's his lease agreement
[MONTAGU]
Soon to make his way up the aisle
[CHARLES]
They'll tie the knot next summer
[MONTAGU]
And to celebrate his recent betrothal
[JEAN]
A sparkling diamond ring
[MONTAGU]
They spent the night in London in style
[CHARLES]
One night on the town
[MONTAGU]
And he took his girl to dinner
And the latest West End show
[JEAN]
She said he looked so handsome
In his suit from Savile Row
[MONTAGU]
One last night of celebration
Before he leaves to save this nation
[CHARLES]
Delivering the plans of our Sardinian invasion
[HESTER]
With a never-ending paper trail
[MONTAGU]
A cover story that can't fail
We made him up, then made his life come true
Believe in Bill and they'll believe him too
We've made you a man
(spoken)
So, what do you think?
[BEVAN, spoken]
It's... good. It's believable
But I do think it's missing one thing
[MONTAGU, spoken]
What?
[BEVAN, spoken]
He needs to be carrying a letter from his fiancée, from the girl that he loves. Soldiers don't go off to war without a... reminder of why they're fighting in the first place
[MONTAGU]
Quite right. I like it
(sung)
And they'll see it there in writing
That our Bill, he went down fighting
For his love, his life and his democracy
[COMPANY]
So we're making a man
Making a hero
Quick as we can
The nation's in need
Of a marvellous man
A dependable dreamboat
A shining example of what humans can be
God, that's brilliant
Really brilliant
God, that's brilliant
They'll never see it coming
God, that's brilliant
Really brilliant
God, that's brilliant
So daring and so cunning
A seamless blend of dreaminess
Experience and genius
These are the ingredients you need
When you're making a man
Song Overview
Personal Review
“Making a Man” lands like a show-within-the-show: it’s brisk, brassy, and built for stagecraft, but the lyrics keep pricking your conscience. I first heard it on the cast recording and found myself rewinding the macabre Spilsbury interlude just to catch the internal rhymes and sly punchlines. In one scene the team writes a life, shops for clues, and argues ethics - and the song never loses its grin. One line summary - a roomful of civil servants manufactures a hero from thin air, then argues whether the trick is worth it.
Key takeaways: the lyrics pivot from swagger to doubt; SpitLip layers London music-hall sparkle over wartime dread; the number doubles as a blueprint for Operation Mincemeat and a character check for Montagu, Charles, Jean, Hester and Bevan. The result is catchy, troubling, and very alive.
Song Meaning and Annotations
The premise is simple: make a perfect fall guy and plant him where the enemy will bite. The music says “celebration,” the story says “cover-up.” That tension powers the track. The groove borrows from bright music-hall and big-band swing - crisp patter, tight choruses, comic asides - yet every joke frames a body, a wallet, a letter, a lie.
The emotional arc starts cocky, opens into carnival grotesque at the morgue, then turns bureaucratic and breathless as approvals, receipts, tailoring, and shipping details pile up. By the time Bevan cools the room with a practical note - add a lover’s letter - the song has slipped from caper to something heavier: if you can build a life from props, what does it cost to carry it?
Culturally the number riffs on British wartime myth-making and the stiff-upper-lip comic tradition. There are nods to London class caricature (“We’re Cockneys - and this is what Cockneys wear”), a showman-pathologist sequence that feels like a Vaudeville spookhouse, and verbal callbacks to stage and screen lore (a wink at Peter Pan’s “straight on till morning” when Monty jokes about turning left at France).
Character signals pop everywhere. Montagu’s early boast lists “ingredients” as if he’s pitching a recipe; Hester’s “experience” and Jean’s quiet solutions ground the bluster; Charles keeps tugging the moral sleeve. Even Spilsbury’s “O.B.E.” aside reads like self-branding - comic on the surface, chilling underneath.
The craft is in the writing. Internal rhymes snap (“gather a cadaver”), tongue-twisters tumble, and patter turns practical: a wallet stuffed with stubs, a Savile Row suit, receipts that “prove” a social life. The lyrics treat documentation like dramaturgy - make the audience believe, and the rest follows.
“These are the ingredients you need / when you’re making a man.”
On its face, it’s motivational. In context, it’s manufacturing consent: assemble virtues, sell the package, ship the body.
“So you say you want the perfect body… old ladies to adolescents / in all stages of putrescence.”
Black comedy meets buyer’s guide. The morgue becomes a showroom, and the chorus turns procurement into patter. It’s horrible, and it’s catchy - that uneasy laugh is the point.
“For when you write the book / my boy, you’re off the hook.”
The most barbed couplet. It hints at how storytellers frame history and absolve themselves by narrating it. The line also winks at the real Montagu later shaping the public version of events.
“We could say that it’s equipment / it’s a top secret shipment / it’s need-to-know.”
Jean’s verse is quiet competence in triplets. She solves a superstition problem - sailors won’t welcome a corpse on board - with a cover label and keeps the plan moving.
“And they will all see our boy / he had such a taste for finery.”
Class signals are props: dinner, theatre stubs, Savile Row. The team curates status to make Bill feel “real.” The ethics wobble when Monty calls the cadaver “some tramp” and Jean and Hester snap back - the show won’t let that attitude slide.
Creation history
The number we hear on the album is a distillation. Early workshop material included a standalone Spilsbury song, and “Making a Man” originally ran far longer onstage before being trimmed on the recording to about nine minutes forty seconds for pace. The kept fragments - especially the Spilsbury patter - give the scene its carnival glare.
Verse Highlights
Verse 1
Monty lists ideal traits like a tailor’s spec sheet, then flips to logistics - “Step one… find a corpse.” It’s a hard cut that sets the song’s tone: bravado, then business.
Chorus
“Making a man / making a hero” is a rallying cry with a catch. The rhyme is candy; the meaning is steel. The chorus sells urgency and morale while the team forges paperwork.
Spilsbury Sequence
The Cockney chorus ushers in a grotesque music-hall cameo. The language dances (“skiploads of these stiffs”) even as the details curdle. Charles’s “Monty, make it stop!” is the audience’s conscience interrupting the show.
Paper Trail & Tailoring
Receipts, rings, theatre stubs, measurements - the set pieces of a life. Hester’s stamps and Jean’s shopping montage are dramaturgy masquerading as admin.
Admirals & The “Human Thermos”
Charles pitches cold practicality with bright rhymes; the chorus of brass hats joins in like a novelty act. It’s funny until you picture the box.
Bevan’s Objection
He arrives mid-row to remind the room that ethics and optics matter. One simple request - a letter from a fiancée - reframes the mission as something a human being might carry to sea.
Annotations woven in: callbacks to earlier numbers (“God, that’s brilliant”), the Peter Pan map gag, the Spilsbury/Purchase composite, the “lung in a drawer” in-joke that spawned fan debates, and the real-world quirk that an undamaged “drowned” body could raise flags in an autopsy. Each detail is planted to amuse on first listen and itch later.
Key Facts
- Featured: Montagu, Charles Cholmondeley, Jean, Hester, Bernard Spilsbury, Colonel Bevan, various Admirals.
- Composer: SpitLip (David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, Zoë Roberts).
- Lyricists: SpitLip (collective credit on the show).
- Release Date: May 12, 2023.
- Album: Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical (Original Cast Recording).
- Genre: Musical theatre with music-hall and swing inflections.
- Instruments: brass section, reeds, rhythm section, piano, percussion; patter-chorus vocals.
- Mood: sardonic, brisk, satirical; shade of dread under the sparkle.
- Length: 9:40 (album version).
- Track #: 6.
- Language: English.
- Music style: patter song meets big-band showstopper; comic list-song techniques.
- Poetic meter: mostly iambic lines with frequent internal rhyme and compound rhyme runs.
Questions and Answers
- What story does “Making a Man” tell in the context of the musical?
- It dramatizes the team’s construction of the false identity “Bill Martin,” from finding a body to planting a believable life around him. The scene shows how a plan becomes a person on paper.
- Why is the Spilsbury sequence so disturbing and funny at once?
- It’s written like a music-hall sales pitch, complete with chorus echoes and list-song glee. That form clashes with its content - a catalog of corpses - creating unease that the show leans into.
- How do Jean and Hester shape the mission in this number?
- Jean solves practical problems and buys the props that humanize Bill; Hester’s paperwork and stamps make the identity feel real. Their lines are cooler, sharper, and they often rescue the men from their own bravado.
- What is Bevan’s key contribution here?
- He insists on a personal anchor - a fiancée’s letter - to make the story truthful enough to pass inspection. It’s a small humane detail that also tightens the plot.
- What musical styles are at play?
- Classic British patter writing, music-hall turns, and big-band bounce. The arrangement uses bright brass and tight ensemble vocals so the jokes hit while the stakes creep in underneath.
Songs Exploring Themes of Identity and Deception
These three tracks circle the same thorny idea as “Making a Man”: how performance, paperwork, and persuasion can twist a story - or save it.
“We Both Reached for the Gun” - Chicago. Roxie’s ventriloquist act in the press conference turns truth into choreography. Like “Making a Man,” the number is candy-bright on the surface: a syncopated routine, reporters as chorus, the lawyer pulling strings. Underneath, it’s a lesson in narrative control - evidence becomes staging, headlines become props, and the room agrees to be dazzled for the sake of a tidy story.
“A Little Priest” - Sweeney Todd. Wordplay, waltz lilt, and a ledger of bodies treated as resources. The joke lands because the patter is faultless; the horror lands because the list is practical. SpitLip’s morgue showroom shares that energy: jaunty cadence selling a dreadful plan. Both songs make you complicit by letting you enjoy the rhyme before you clock the meaning.
“Popular” - Wicked. Different stakes, same craft. Glinda outlines a makeover that will “sell” Elphaba to a skeptical world. The humor is fizzy, the subtext is thorny: we edit ourselves to fit a story others can accept. “Making a Man” turns that idea outward - not a makeover, but a whole cloth identity, stitched from receipts and a ring.