In honour of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee weekend, we’ve rounded up our favourite Queens of the West End and what makes them and their stories so compelling – and often inspiring!
The Six Queens
Of course our list has to kick off with the Queens from Six! Aragon, Boleyn, Cleves, Howard, Parr and Seymour are all given their voices back and then some and we get to hear all about how it hasn’t always been the rosiest to be a British Queen!
Six is poppy and fun but doesn’t shy away from demonstrating that even Queens didn’t escape how hard it was to be a woman 400 years ago!
The Queen of Belleville from Cinderella
The Queen from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella is so perfectly petulant, vain, and demanding. She seems equally concerned about her missing son and the state of the rose bushes in her perfect kingdom.
Played by the fantastic Rebecca Trehearn, her comedic timing brings so much to the role, and you just can’t hate her! The song ‘I Know You’ sung by the Queen of Belleville and Cinderella’s evil stepmother is one of the finest pieces of musical comedy in the West End.
Elsa from Frozen
It’s the pressure of her Queenly duties and public life that drive Elsa off into the mountains at the beginning of Disney’s Frozen. The isolation she’s experienced her whole life makes her unable to handle the death of her parents or the new responsibilities she must assume as she ascends to the throne.
Ultimately, it is her sister reaching out across this isolation that saves Elsa and saves the kingdom of Arendelle. It’s so great to see a story where she gets her strength from love and support from family and friends, rather than any hunt to find a King!
Nala from The Lion King
Nala is Simba’s wife and therefore Queen of the Pride Lands. She’s tough, fierce and loyal, just like any lioness would be. Without her, who knows how long Simba would have been stuck wandering about in the jungle for!
Interestingly, Julie Taymor changed the role of Nala a bit when she adapted The Lion King for the stage, as she felt the character deserved to be developed more and be a bigger part of the story.