'Mrs President' review — Keala Settle stars as Mary Todd Lincoln in a fight to reclaim the First Lady's narrative

Read our review of John Ransom Phillips's play Mrs President, now in performances at Charing Cross Theatre to 8 March.

Summary

• Mrs President is one of two current London productions centred on Mary Todd Lincoln
• John Ransom Phillips imagines her meetings with photographer Mathew Brady
• The Greatest Showman star Keala Settle plays Mary
• West End performer Hal Fowler co-stars as Brady

In what must be a first, there are currently two plays in London about Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of the 16th president of the United States. Mason Alexander Park is chewing the scenery nightly in the outrageous Oh, Mary!, but a few streets away, Keala Settle is portraying a very different kind of woman.

Press for this former First Lady has never been particularly positive: she was variously branded extravagant, a traitor and mentally unstable. But writer John Ransom Phillips attempts to give Mary her own narrative in his play Mrs President, which has been been retooled since its outing last year, as he imagines meetings between Mary and her photographer Mathew Brady, the father of photojournalism. She wants to repair and strengthen her public reputation; he believes he can do just that, but only if she submits to his vision.

In a non-singing role, Settle begins as a sympathetic and rather amiable Mary, showing a woman profoundly impacted by grief for her dead children and murdered husband and resilient against society’s opinions. But later her anguish tips into melodrama, with overblown, visceral wailing for her losses.

Hal Fowler is a mercurial Brady, totally indifferent to Mary’s story. He is entirely focused on his own reputation, as well as the technology at his fingertips and its ability to communicate an image to the public. Fowler comes across as a manipulative, eccentric artist, but also fails to find connection or chemistry with Settle. It feels as though the two actors are in very different plays.

It's a shame as Ransom Phillips uses a device with great potential – as each portrait is taken, a little more of Mary is revealed – but the expositional script fails to get far below the surface. Was Mary a victim of negative publicity or silenced through her incarceration in a mental institute simply because she was grieving? Was she bad or just sad? The audience is left none the wiser.

Bronagh Lagan returns to direct, but struggles to create a focal point to the meandering production. Timelines jump around arbitrarily and we are never sure if we are watching reality, a memory, or something imagined. Thankfully the talking chair and camera from the last iteration have been removed, but the play remains perplexing. If it is a study of grief and mental illness, it is unsympathetic. If it is a study of Mary’s character, we learn little more about the woman herself.

Vast subjects such as slavery, women’s lack of rights, and the ethics of war photography are mentioned, then left unexplored. Mary also encounters random characters such as the French naturalist John James Audubon which adds nothing but confusion.

It is an attractive production: Anna Kelsey’s eye-catching set surrounds the proscenium arch with a picture frame, encircling Brady’s studio, walls lined with his work. Matt Powell’s projections are inventive and add depth and visual interest to the dreamlike sequences. But while Mary Todd Lincoln is a dramatic subject with huge potential to explore, alas in this play she remains out of focus, like a poorly taken photograph.

Mrs President is at Charing Cross Theatre to 8 March. Book Mrs President tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: Mrs President (Photos by Pamela Raith Photography)