Waiting in the Wings: Rose Mary O’Reilly on saving the day at 'Paddington The Musical'

What could have been an actor’s nightmare turned out to be a dream come true for this plucky, talented young musical theatre star, after she took on the role of Millicent Clyde in Paddington The Musical at short notice.

Summary

• Rose Mary O’Reilly is a swing in Paddington The Musical
• As part of our new series Waiting in the Wings, she tells London Theatre Magazine about stepping in as Millicent Clyde at the 11th hour
• Paddington The Musical is in performances at the Savoy Theatre

With only a few hours' notice, Rose Mary O’Reilly went from swing to covering a lead role in the West End production of Paddington The Musical: playing the villainous Millicent Clyde. She speaks to London Theatre Magazine about how she jumped into action, so the show could on!

Book Paddington The Musical tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

How did you get started in your career?
I’m from Cork in Ireland. My mum let me do musical theatre when I was young, but it was really my primary school that put a big focus on it. We would put on our own productions of Mamma Mia! — we were all about nine — and I absolutely loved it. I went to Performers Academy in Cork until I was 18, and that’s where I realised I wanted to do it professionally. I always had my eye on London and the West End, so I auditioned for drama schools and chose Urdang mainly because it scared me the most! I saw myself as a singer, and Urdang had a reputation for dancers. I wanted to be an all-rounder and knew they would push me.

After drama school I got my wonderful agent, then I was cast in Secret Cinema’s Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical, then I was cast in this — and here I am!

What has being part of the original cast of Paddington The Musical been like?
It’s quite mad. It’s always been my dream to do a show like this in the West End, and for it also to be such a hit, I have to pinch myself every day. The company have become my family. The story is all about kindness and acceptance, and everyone genuinely is so kind and supportive. I also can’t believe I’m working with West End legends like Victoria Hamilton-Barritt and Bonnie Langford. I’m not just watching them — I’m in a show with them, and they’ve become people I can call friends. That is crazy.

As a swing, what does a normal week look like?
I cover ten ensemble tracks — all the female- and male-presenting ensemble tracks — and I cover Judy Brown and Lady Sloane, so it’s 12 tracks. I absolutely love being a swing because it keeps it exciting. You get a text in the morning saying what you’re doing, and by Act Two it could be different. Sometimes you get to a number and think, “Wait, which track am I doing?” I have cheat sheets and swing maps, almost like a bird’s-eye view of the stage. Every track also has different characters and little storylines, so it’s really artistically fulfilling. I feel like I get the best of all worlds.

Then came the day you were unexpectedly called on to play Millicent Clyde, a role you had not rehearsed for. What happened?
It started as a pretty normal day and quickly was not a normal day! My parents happened to be visiting from Cork and we’d gone for coffee before they headed to the airport, when my agent called. She said, “This is wild, but there is currently no one available who can play Millicent at tonight’s performance.” My name had been tossed around as somebody who could possibly do it. Before I knew it, I had said “yes!” I came back to the table and told my parents, and the first thing my mum said was, “We’re cancelling our flight.”

How did you prepare for a role that big in just a few hours?
The team on the show didn’t rush me. I went through the songs first, then started to learn the scenes. I slowly realised how much I already knew. As a swing and understudy, I’m constantly watching the show. A lot of Millicent’s lines are cue lines, and I dance in her first song “Pretty Little Dead Things” every night, so I knew that song and knew what she did from my peripheral vision. Then, next thing you know, I was doing it.

During the show, people said I was surprisingly calm. As a swing, you learn that panic is such wasted energy. I just took it one scene at a time. Everyone was incredible. [Olivier Award winner] Tom Edden was in the wings asking, “Do you want to run the next scene?” I had people there with Percy Pigs, water, and my script. I felt so held.

It was one of the best days of my life because my parents, my partner, and so many of my family and friends happened to be in the audience. After my last scene, I was just in the wings crying. I don’t know whether it was relief, joy, or just everything. I kept thinking, “I cannot believe my nearest and dearest are here to see this crazy day.”

Has that experience changed what feels possible for you? What other dreams do you have?
Definitely. My dream has always been to play a lead in the West End and have those big songs. That always seemed really far away, but doing Millicent gave me a little bit of a sense of, “No, you can do it.” I’d love to do Les Misérables — Eponine has always been the role for me. But the absolute dream has always been Elphaba in Wicked. If somebody asked me my biggest dream in life, that would be it. I’m such a dreamer, so I’m going to keep dreaming!

Book Paddington The Musical tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

This article first appeared in the October 2026 issue of London Theatre Magazine.

Photo credit: Rose Mary O’Reilly. (Courtesy of production). Inset: Paddington The Musical.