Helen George has stepped onto the stage at the Barbican Centre in London as Tracy Lord in High Society, a move that pushes her beyond the role millions know best. Best known as Nurse Trixie Franklin, later Lady Aylward, in Call the Midwife, she is now front and centre in a Cole Porter musical that gives her a chance to be judged on something else.
That matters now because High Society is playing in London until 11 July, with a major national tour to follow. For George, who has starred in Call the Midwife since January 2012, this is not just another appearance but a high-profile test of whether audiences will meet her as a stage lead rather than a television fixture.
The role itself is a neat fit for what she trained to do. George studied musical theatre at the Royal Academy of Music, and in High Society she plays the American heiress Tracy Lord, the character Grace Kelly took on in the 1956 film. On stage, Tracy swigs champagne the night before her wedding, and George is said to be a nifty dancer who sings beautifully, keeping her American accent steady in song.
Her work in the production is also being measured in the way the music lands around her. Her voice blends with Julian Ovenden’s in True Love, while Ovenden plays Tracy’s ex-husband Dexter, and Freddie Fox makes his musical theatre debut, sharing Well Did You Evah? with him. The production leans on those pairings, but George is the one under the brightest light because the show is framed as a return to the musical world she left behind for television.
That is where the friction sits. George has been so closely identified with Call the Midwife since 2012 that it has limited how seriously she could be taken outside that part, even after her Strictly appearance in 2015 showed she could command a different kind of audience. High Society offers her a cleaner reading: not as a midwife in costume, but as a performer with classical training and a voice built for the theatre.
What happens after the Barbican run will matter more than the launch. If the national tour carries the same reaction, George may finally have the second act that has long been promised to her. If it does not, she will remain a familiar television face in an evening gown. The stage has given her the chance; the tour will show whether the part sticks.
