Mrs President at Charing Cross Theatre Review
Written by Penny for Theatre & Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review
It appears that plays about Mary Todd Lincoln are like buses. You wait forever for one to open in the West End and then …
A stone’s throw from its ridiculously camp contemporary Oh, Mary, this new take on the story of an American First Lady opens at the Charing Cross Theatre. Originally staged at the theatre in 2025 the play, reimagined ahead of this run, shows us a woman trying to reclaim her story in a fictional meeting with Matthew Brady, the world’s first celebrity photographer.
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th US President and you only need a cursory knowledge of American history to be aware that he led the country through civil war and was assassinated during a night at the theatre. But most people will know nothing about his First Lady – and her story is a very sad one. She was not popular, criticised for her lavish spending, and she suffered with her physical and mental health, no doubt exacerbated by the grief of her husband’s assassination and two of her three children not surviving to adulthood. As a character, she definitely has a dramatic story to tell. Unfortunately, this confusing two-hander does not do that story justice.
Writer John Ransom Phillips, originally an artist, has delivered a script that doesn’t allow for any real character development or subtlety in performance. His programme notes are as confusing as a lot of the plot, he doesn’t seem able to fully articulate the story that he wants to tell. We move through a series of encounters between Mary and Grady – a lot of ideas are floated but with no clear resolution. We touch on significant tragedies in her life but it’s all a little overshadowed by the rather self-indulgent writing.
Anna Kelsey’s set and lighting design by Derek Anderson are highlights, transforming the photographer’s studio into a hellscape where shadows, birds and even an apple take on nightmarish qualities. Under Bronah Lagan’s direction, the actors move well in these sequences, their physicality reflecting the design and giving us more of an insight into Mary’s turmoil than the script allows.
Playing Mary Todd Lincoln, Keala Settle does the best she can with the material. She brings a childlike quality to her character but also displays a steely resolve, demanding respect that clearly isn’t automatically afforded to a mere woman, even a woman to be addressed as Mrs President. Her performance is rather too softly spoken for a lot of the play, only really holding our attention when tragedy strikes with emotional outbursts that give us a glimpse of the formidable performer we know her to be.
As Grady, Hal Fowler has good chemistry with Settle, their early verbal sparring is promising. He’s at his best as the famous photographer with failing eyesight, although this is something could do with more development as there’s no exploration of how this vulnerability impacts on him. Fowler also takes on a range of other characters, none of them feel clearly defined or offer much to the story.
It took ten years for the script for Mrs President to be completed and it has had a lot of work done on it since its first outing at the Charing Cross Theatre last year. Sadly, despite its strong themes including grief, mental health and the low status of women in 19th Century society, this rather self-indulgent piece still feels as blurred as Grady’s photographs and like a work in progress. If it is truly to tell the tragic story of this fascinating First Lady, the artist responsible for its script needs to go back to the drawing board.
Running at 90 minutes (without interval), Mrs President is on at the Charing Cross Theatre until 8th March 2026. Find out more here.
★★