Paul Mescal: I’d love to do Company or Sweeney Todd 

As viral videos from a few years back can attest, Paul Mescal definitely has some pipes on him! 

The Normal People and Aftersun star, who won an Olivier Award on Sunday for his turn in A Streetcar Named Desire, is no stranger to the musical world having appeared in amateur productions of The Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables when younger – to great success, from what we’ve heard. 

So too have movie producers, with the Oscar nominee now set to appear in Richard Linklater’s big-screen version of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Merrily We Roll Along, which is being released in just shy of two decade’s time. So you might have to wait a while for that one. 

But would Mescal love to be back on stage in a musical? I asked him in the Olivier Awards winners’ room – his response was rapidfire and two shows were instantly put forwards: Company (another Sondheim and Furth musical, last seen in a gender-switched production in the West End in 2018), as well as the iconic Sweeney Todd, which is being revived as we speak on the Great White Way. The former follows a forlorn bachelor who contemplates the nature of commitment, while the latter follows a barber who murders his way around London in a bloodthirsty revenge quest. Two roles that Mescal could bring something very interesting to… 

In fact, Mescal already has a dream director in mind for Sweeney Todd – Streetcar‘s Rebecca Frecknall, who revived Cabaret to record-breaking success in 2021 and picked up another Olivier for Best Play Revival (following Summer and Smoke) for Streetcar on Sunday. Fingers crossed the duo will find time in their immensely busy schedules to collaborate once more. 

In the meantime, Mescal has a variety of big projects on the go – Hollywood is calling with the major action blockbuster sequel to Gladiator, while other flicks including British fantasy drama Strangers alongside Andrew Scott and Claire Foy. 

Stay tuned for more chats with Mescal as well as all the Olivier Award-winners in attendance at the Royal Albert Hall, coming soon.