West End’s standing ovation for history’s unsung women
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For much of theatre history, women were erased twice over: from the stories and from the stage. Before King Charles II’s royal warrant in 1662, women in England weren’t allowed to perform, meaning that every Juliet, Ophelia, and Desdemona was played by a man. And once women finally stepped into the light, they were often boxed into one-note roles: the wife, the lover, the mother, or the tragic figure waiting to be rescued. More prop than protagonist.
Today, the West End is making up for lost time. Theatreland is rolling out a wave of productions that put women - real, complex, occasionally chaotic women - at the centre of their own stories.
Take [*Six the Musical*](https://www.londontheatredirect.com/musical/six-london-vaudeville-theatre-tickets). What started as a student-made pop concert is now a full-blown global hit. The show gives Henry VIII’s six wives the mic they never got in history class. Catherine, Anne, Jane, Anna, Katherine, and Catherine fire off their own versions of events, trading the old tragic-queen narrative for sharp, witty, Beyoncé-esque bangers. Instead of being defined by how they died, they tell us how they lived.
Then there’s [*Hamilton*](https://www.londontheatredirect.com/musical/hamilton-west-end-tickets). It may be marketed as the story of America’s “ten-dollar founding father,” but its emotional backbone belongs to the women. Angelica Schuyler’s brilliance and Eliza Hamilton’s quiet resolve reshape the narrative, especially in the final moments of the show. Eliza’s gasp, her decades of work at the orphanage she co-founded, and her stubborn commitment to telling the story (his and hers) give Hamilton its lasting punch. She becomes far more than “the best of wives and best of women.”
Even before this recent wave, *Beautiful - The Carole King Musical* helped shift the landscape. The 2014 show charted King’s rise from songwriter-for-hire to powerhouse artist. With more than a hundred Billboard hits to her name, King hardly needed a confidence boost, but *Beautiful* reframed her legacy for audiences who may not have realised how much of modern music carries her fingerprints. The musical’s success paved the way for later shows, like the record-breaking *Tina - The Tina Turner Musical*, and feel-good The Cher Show. However, with [Michael Jackson](https://www.londontheatredirect.com/musical/mj-the-musical-tickets), The Beatles and Bob Marley, each having two full-length musicals about their careers, we may have a little while to go with the musical biopic.
A quieter but equally bold entry is *The Years*, based on **Annie Ernaux**’s memoir. The show, which had a sold out run at the Almeida transferred to the [Harold Pinter Theatre](https://www.londontheatredirect.com/venue/harold-pinter-theatre-london) and picked up two Olivier Awards, turns the life of an “ordinary” woman into a theatrical event. Ernaux isn’t royalty or a political icon. She’s a witness to decades of social change, and the production honours the countless women whose stories never make it into textbooks yet define the world around them.
And most recently, **Cole Escola**’s [*Oh, Mary!*](https://www.londontheatredirect.com/play/oh-mary-tickets) Gives First Lady, Mary Todd Lincoln, a much-deserved rebrand. Long dismissed as “eccentric,” and only really seen as one half of a relationship, she storms the stage here as a cabaret star with a spectacularly bratty wig with her husband, Abraham Lincoln introduced simply as ‘Mary’s Husband.’ The show winks at how history has tilted the spotlight toward men, and how easy it is to tilt it back.
Together, these productions point to a meaningful shift. Instead of replaying the achievements of “great men,” the West End is asking whose voices were skipped, sidelined, or cropped out altogether. The result isn’t a rewriting of history, but a reframing of it, one where women once kept in the margins finally claim centre stage.