![\"Rose](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/5243248_1_articleinline_ECHO_20FEATURES_20WoW_20Rose_20Mary_20O_27Reilly_20Source_20Insta.jpeg\" "\\"Rose")
Rose says moving to London has made her more mature, and she puts a lot of energy into her work.<\/p>\nCurrently performing in the Olivier Award-winning Paddington The Musical on London\u2019s West End, Rose Mary O\u2019Reilly, of Kilcully, made theatre history this summer when she stepped up to play the lead villain role of Millicent Clyde with just four hours of rehearsal.<\/p>\n
At 22, Rose\u2019s action helped prevent the West End show from being cancelled that evening, with her performance and bravery being cited as \u201cincredible\u201d by Broadway and West End news outlets alike.<\/p>\n
Rose and I both attended the Performer\u2019s Academy in the Firkin Crane together as teenagers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI only ever wanted to do musical theatre,\u201d Rose said. From karaoke in my back garden to the West End. She\u2019s still Rose.<\/p>\n
In Paddington, Rose is a swing and first cover for Judy Brown, meaning that her job is to \u2018swing\u2019 into different roles should other actors be unavailable to perform. Millicent was not a role she had been asked to learn.<\/p>\n
\u201cI forgot that social media was part of [performing]. When Millicent happened, not one part of me thought I would be doing an interview. Someone was like, can you speak to The Radio Times? I never processed that it would be so public, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rose says she can find the attention from the audience \u201cbaffling\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love doing stagedoor, especially with Paddington. There\u2019s often a lot of kids at stagedoor and that\u2019s really sweet when they want to take pictures. But it is baffling when people want my signature. I find that really crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rose graduated from the prestigious Urdang Academy in 2025, and after performing in her final year show, American Idiot, she met her \u201cgorgeous\u201d agent Amy.<\/p>\n
This led to her first professional job mere months later performing in Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical in Battersea.<\/p>\n
The phone call<\/p>\n
Amy was the first to call Rose, having been told \u201cher name was being thrown around\u201d as an emergency cover for Millicent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think all she said was, \u2018so how do you feel about that?\u2019 I just burst out laughing. I told my agent that I was willing to explore it, whatever that would look like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rose was given a number of options about how the performance could look.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThey gave me the option of going on with the script. Or doing like a concert version where I would stand and sing, and not do all the blocking. They gave the option of not fully doing Paddington The Musical as it stands. They just wanted the show to be possible.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
Rose saving the show by playing Millicent has been serendipitous in more ways than one.<\/p>\n
Her parents were already with her at a coffee shop in London when she got the call, and as one of Paddington\u2019s social media captains, videos of her from early on in the run saying Millicent was one of her dream roles quickly circulated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI ran back, and I told my mom. I was like, \u2018oh my god, they want me to play Millicent\u2019. And bless my mom, she was like, \u2018okay, we\u2019re cancelling our flights home\u2019. I was so terrified to say yes. But it was never going to be a no. My mom was sitting next to me, and I could tell that she was like, \u2018just say yes!\u2019 It was obvious that I wanted to do it, but I really struggled to make that decision because it was so scary.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the end, Rose chose to perform the show as written, completely off book, with choreography. Afterwards, fellow West End performers posted their congratulations online, including the show\u2019s creator, McFly\u2019s Tom Fletcher.<\/p>\n
Life on the West End<\/p>\n
How has Rose adapted to not only London life, but life on the West End alongside legends like Bonnie Langford and Victoria Hamilton-Barritt?<\/p>\n
\u201cI have learned so much on this job from watching their professionalism. One of the reasons why I wanted to play Millicent is because I would watch Victoria Hamilton-Barritt, Jacqueline Hughes, and Aim\u00e9e Fisher, all the women that cover her.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny time they went on, I just could not take my eyes off them. The way that they carried themselves on stage and off. You watch Vix enter the stage, and it\u2019s incredible; I\u2019m in the wings. Then she comes off, and she\u2019s just like, \u2018so, what did you have for dinner?\u201d<\/p>\n
Rose says moving to London has made her more mature, and she puts a lot of energy into her work.<\/p>\n
Rose says moving to London has made her more mature, and she puts a lot of energy into her work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m definitely more independent. Moving out at 18 definitely changes you, and especially with working professionally, I\u2019m definitely more mature.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuddenly, you\u2019re working with these incredible legends, and I feel a level of responsibility on my shoulders to get up and do the job, and I love what I do. I put a lot of time and energy into it, and I think that eliminates any other time to be immature.<\/p>\n
\u201cI absolutely love living in London, sometimes I have to pinch myself a little bit. I\u2019ll wake up and go to work, walk along The Strand and see Six The Musical across the road. I\u2019m like, wait, what do you mean I live and work here?\u201d<\/p>\n
Coming home<\/p>\n
What is it like to visit home?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think, for me, home is now less about the place and more about the people. When I come home, I just have a list of people I want to see.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t care where that is as long as I\u2019m surrounded by these people, like, obviously, my parents, and my aunts, and my uncles, and my cousins. You know, my brother and his friends.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI went home recently, met up with one of my best friends, Eimear, and we just went to Kinsale, which was gorgeous. We just talked about how different our lives are now, compared to what it was like when we were in school \u2014 she\u2019s becoming a doctor.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cIt does feel like two completely separate lives. I\u2019ll sit there and chat with my best friend and it just feels like I\u2019m back in St Angela\u2019s, like I never left.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I sit and tell her about Paddington, I\u2019m in disbelief that those words are even coming out of my mouth, because I\u2019m back in Cork and my friends are still there. My family is still there. I\u2019m the one that left.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coming home is akin to a holiday.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Cork and London] feel so close together, but so far apart. But I\u2019m so grateful for it because going to Cork now feels like a holiday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I go home, I completely disassociate from the life that I have in London. When I actually think about it, they are so different. But in a great way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Everything is coming up Rose, with the Cork actor headed to Toronto for her next role in 13 Going On 30 The Musical.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Currently performing in the Olivier Award-winning Paddington The Musical on London\u2019s West End, Rose Mary O\u2019Reilly, of Kilcully,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,38747,93,61,60,61069],"class_list":["post-640651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-cork-arts","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-wow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}