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Mrs President

 
Richard Beck Review by Richard Beck 2 Published: 29 Jan 2026 Charing Cross Theatre Show Dates: 23 Jan 2026-8 Mar 2026

Plays often attempt to redress the balance of male-dominated history, and Charing Cross Theatre is currently hosting Mrs President, a two-hander that places Abraham Lincoln’s wife, Mary Todd Lincoln (Keala Settle), centre-stage with the ground-breaking photographer Matthew Brady (Hal Fowler).

Despite all these factors in its favour, it is still hard to identify with her or to feel a sense of emotional attachment.

The period is artistically established with a conservatively furnished set by Anna Kelsey, who also designed the fabulously impressive costumes. Greens, blues and browns dominate Mary’s functional room, with a carver chair that brings back memories of her sons who died at the ages of three, 12 and 18. Behind a gauze screen that blends unobtrusively into the room’s layout is the photographic developing studio. It might appear somewhat dull but for the imaginative lighting from Derek Andersen, who also supplies multicoloured artistic flashes that heighten key moments. Meanwhile, Eammon O’Dwyer’s sound effectively complements both the setting and the action.

Director Bronagh Lagan makes excellent use of everything supplied by the creatives and, along with associate and movement director Sam Rayner, gives Settle plenty of room to swirl her layers of hooped petticoats. Despite all these factors in its favour, along with the invested experience of two accomplished actors, and notwithstanding all her stories, the tragic deaths she experienced and the devastating sectioning of her by her eldest and only son to reach adulthood, it is still hard to identify with her or to feel a sense of emotional attachment. Her cause is not helped by the excessive wailing and screaming in some scenes.

Fowler takes on several roles, including one as a judge in which the emancipation timeline seems completely awry. This, and other scenes, provide glimpses of the eventful times in which they were living, but nothing is explored in depth.

The missed opportunities to create two characters with hearts, confronting major personal and social issues, are manifold, denying us both emotional understanding and historical insight.

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The Blurb:

Art Pond Foundation presents MRS PRESIDENT

Written by John Ransom Phillips                     Directed by Bronagh LaganKeala Settle is Mrs President.Mary Lincoln is a woman under siege — with her grief, her detractors, and herself. In the shadow of her late husband, President Abraham Lincoln, she battles a world eager to define her and a conscience that will not rest. Accused of treason and shunned by society, she turns to Matthew Brady, the world’s first celebrity photographer — played by Hal Fowler (Les Miserables, Aspects of Love, Flowers for Mrs Harris) — to help her reclaim her story. But as the lens turns between them, the power shifts, and their collaboration spirals into a fierce struggle for authorship, truth, and control.

Following its original staging in 2025, Mrs President opens at the Charing Cross Theatre in a newly reimagined version — the result of deep dramaturgical development and a creative workshop period in New York that uncovered bold new layers within the piece.

This is not a remount, but a reinvention — richer in scope, sharper in focus, and more hauntingly human.

Re-envisioned under the direction of Bronagh Lagan (Cruise, Broken Wings) and written by artist, playwright, and historian John Ransom Phillips, the production features Broadway musical theatre star Keala Settle (The Greatest Showman, Waitress, Les Miserables) in a rare non-singing dramatic role that showcases her extraordinary depth and power.