7 Shows/3 Days - West End Roundup

[quizking101]

Posted: 1/24/26 at 6:08pm

Operation Mincemeat - I love this show, and since it was either this or The Mousetrap for a Tuesday matinee, and I wasn’t paying £75 for the latter, I went to Mincemeat and it remains a well-oiled machine, Madeleine Jackson-Smith being the MVP as the 1st Cover Montagu. She had all the scrappy mettle of Gerianne and the d***-swinging swagger of Tash. I’ve missed seeing it in the smaller theatre, but this show has proven itself to be settling in to have a decent Broadway run (by today’s low standards) and probably a very long West End run. 

The Devil Wears Prada - It’s exactly what you would expect it to be. It’s more or less the film on stage, beefed up with some okay songs and some Jerry Mitchell razzle dazzle. Vanessa Williams is perfect for the role, but to me the real star was Matt Henry as Nigel. He was more than just a gay confidant, but an actual fully developed person. He knocked out Act I with “Dress Your Way Up” (which was essentially “Sex Is In The Heel” down to the arm extension and strut choreo) and “Seen” in Act II. For £30, it was a perfectly decent evening.

Woman in Mind - I knew of Sheridan Smith, Ramesh Ranganathan, and Alan Ayckbourn from different mediums, but the premise of the play piqued my interest since it basically involved a head injury that becomes an internal battle between her real (terrible) family and her imaginary (pleasant) one. It felt a little like “Sliding Doors” meets “The Skin Of Our Teeth”. I’m not usually one for surrealism, but I quite enjoyed this.

Hercules - Having seen the Papermill production and feeling quite a bit of cringe, I’m happy to say the West End show is an improvement in many ways. The bones of it are still a little creaky, but they at least rewrote and added some new songs, made some costume updates (specifically Hades - no more blueish makeup and fright wig), and cast a Hercules who didn’t look like a Fire Island gym twink at a BFA audition. The Muses, not surprisingly, still absolutely EAT. Also, for £28, I ended up getting a front row royal circle (1st Mezz) side seat that was allegedly restricted view, and my view was actually pretty damn good. 

Paddington - I was canvassing the Twickets app and I managed to score stall seats for the matinee at a VERY decent price - and so I dumped The Producers. I am SO glad I did. I’m not given to seeing things because of “hype” necessarily, but I didn’t want to regret passing this opportunity. It is honestly theatrical craftsmanship of the highest order. It combines classic set elements with projections and other digital effects to create this beautiful stage picture and is practical to effectively tell the story. The songs were all unilaterally bangers - I can’t think of anything that needed to be cut and I can’t wait for that cast recording to come out because everyone had a chance to shine. 

The voice actor and costumed actress who played Paddington made him so real and lifelike that it truly felt like a person in the way Darren Criss makes a robot feel nearly human in MHE. Also, Victoria Hamilton-Barritt had probably the best villain entrance and arc I have seen on stage in my life. She was so deliciously and cartoonishly evil while also somehow keeping it grounded. It’s really something special when the villain of the show makes you root for her a little bit because she’s slaying so hard.

Oh, Mary - I had my concerns about how the British would recieve this, and yet my audience was howling with laughter. They do still have the prologue with the backstory of the Lincolns, but I did love the preshow update with “Welcome to the Trafalgar Theatre, home of 4 of London’s most functional toilets”. Mason was pitch perfect as Mary - getting laughs out of me where I thought I couldn’t find laughs anymore. They knew how to milk a comedy bit dry and it was perfect. They were a mix of a dowager and a demon. Giles Terera was much in the Phillip James Brannon style of Abe, which I liked, especially when it came to the full unraveling with Booth (Dino Fletcher - very similar to Cheyenne’s, with a butt that was SCULPTED for those Fiyero pants). I do want Mason to bring their take to the states because it deserves to be seen for its Jekyll/Hyde duality. (I’m hearing rumors of an extension through the summer - though moving to a different theatre, and without Giles and possibly Mason).

High Noon - It was a perfectly adequate adaptation of a classic Western film. It moved along briskly at 100 minutes and they integrated some modern country and rock songs into the play as sort of a chorus/commentary. Billy Crudup and Denise Gough were reliably excellent given the material, and I loved Denise’s interpretation of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire” interspersed throughout the play as a commentary on her troubled marriage.

[Timon3]

Posted: 1/24/26 at 7:27pm

Seeing your avatar I had a feeling you would see Oh Mary glad you enjoyed it, but more so pleased your heart was softened by a little bear.

Thanks for the review.

[Zeppie2022]

Posted: 1/24/26 at 7:48pm

Thanks for your report. I had read good things about "Paddington" and glad you confirmed them.

[quizking101]

Posted: 1/25/26 at 1:42am

Timon3 said: "Seeing your avatar I had a feeling you would see Oh Mary glad you enjoyed it, but more so pleased your heart was softened by a little bear.

Thanks for the review."

That was pretty much the impetus for the whole trip and I but everything else around it. 

Paddington is still sticking with me even many days later.

[Timon3]

Posted: 1/25/26 at 4:27pm

Do you think Paddington will do well in New York, by which I mean grossing $2m a week, which seems the benchmark for any big musical to recoup now?

[quizking101]

Posted: 1/25/26 at 5:44pm

The current rumor I heard is that it’s planning on coming to the St. James in the fall riding in on a wave of awards recognition from the Oliviers (à la Mincemeat), hence why Titanique is having a short run with, at most, 1-2 extensions built in. It’s to keep the lights on at the theatre and also bolster the Titanique brand before ATG’s big new show comes in. 

My immediate concern is that this show looks VERY expensive in terms of production costs, and it’s a valid concern that $1.5-2M weekly gross seems to be the benchmark for a profitable trajectory. I don’t know how much appeal Paddington is going to have beyond the regular theatregoers and families (despite the popularity of the films), and I can imagine it’s going to EASILY cost at least $750 for a family of four to get tickets to the show, which is a BIG ask already.

[Timon3]

Posted: 1/25/26 at 7:19pm

I agree with what you said. When it come to New York it will come as a developed show, the British show will pay for all the development costs, so I reckon this will land at a cost of $25-30m and probably cost about between $1.2-1.5m a week to run, if this was developed on Broadway I would expect this would cost $80m to stage?

So only way to find out how it would do is by opening the show, the climate doesn’t look great with Trump and Canadians not coming down, I am Anglo/American and I don’t know when I will be back. May stop in New York when I visit my father in Ohio.

[quizking101]

Posted: 1/25/26 at 8:02pm

I don’t think it would even come close to $80M to develop on Broadway. That’s more than Stranger Things ($45M+) and Harry Potter ($68M+).

While the show is certainly complex in certain ways, I think it would at best be comparable to something like DEATH BECOMES HER.

[Timon3]

Posted: 1/26/26 at 9:07am

But Harry Potter did cost $68m and that was for a play and came to Broadway as a developed show. Paddington has a lot of complexity with the bear that required extensive development and workshopping that why I put a cool $80m on Paddington head, oh plus a jar of marmalade.

It is inconceivable why HP would cost $68m, if HP was developed on Broadway first might that cost $100m - $120m

 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 1/26/26 at 9:27am

Harry Potter’s $68 million included $33 million outside of the capitalization to overhaul the theatre. Something that PADDINGTON will definitely not be doing.

as for the point that “Paddington has a lot of complexity with the bear that required extensive development and workshopping” —— that’s all part of the London capitalization. There should be very little R&D needed now.

A pricetag in the $25 to $35 million range seems logical for this show. 

[Timon3]

Posted: 1/26/26 at 2:14pm

If HP cost $68m, Sunset Boulevard $15m and Cabaret cost $28m then Paddington would cost more than $25m to $35m, I could see that figure being possible to bring the show over, but not to bring it to Broadway as a world premiere, that was developed for Broadway.