West End Cocktails! Your favourite shows as drinks

Here’s all your favourite West End Shows as Cocktails. Got a night out on the West End planned? Why not use this guide to pair your drinks and entertainment seamlessly!

Many of the West End bars offer cocktails at the venue so be sure you arrive nice and early to get those drinks in – maybe even get ahead of the game and pre-order your interval drinks! Some of these cocktails are niche but luckily, many of these shows are near Soho which is the vibrant heart of London’s nightlife which offers a great selection of bars, pubs and clubs.

Here’s your comprehensive list of 10 West End Shows if they were cocktails:

• The Great Gatsby – Classic Champagne Cocktail
• Mamma Mia – Sex on the beach
• Les Miserables – French 75
• Six – Bloody Mary
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Dark and Stormy
• The Devil Wears Prada – Manhattan
• Hamilton – Old Fashioned
• Book of Mormon – Shirley Temple
• The Lion King – Tequila Sunrise
• Titanique – Margarita On The Rocks

The Great Gatsby – Classic Champagne Cocktail:

Ingredients:

• 90 ml Chilled Champagne
• 10 ml Cognac
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters
• Few drops of Grand Marnier (optional)
• 1 sugar cube
• Garnish: Orange Peel

This cocktail is the epitome of class, just like the infamous, Jay Gatsby. The Great Gatsby Musical is based on the F.Scott Fitzgerald novel which was also turned into a hit film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. It focuses in on the American upper classes in 1920s America. The elusive Jay Gatsby hosts many of the society’s swanky parties and this classy cocktail would definitely be one he would serve. The combination of Champagne and Cognac screams money. The simple get effects garnish is exactly the kind of elegance expected from attending one of Gatsby’s legendary parties.

Mamma Mia! – Sex on the Beach:

Ingredients:

• 40 ml Vodka
• 20 ml Peach Schnapps
• 40ml Fresh Orange Juice
• 40 ml Cranberry Juice
• Garnish: Orange slice, Glace Cherries and an umbrella!
  

Need we say more? We know that our girl Donna had her fair share of these cocktails which lead to the antics that play out on the West End 8 shows a week. This cocktail is fun and summery which makes it perfect for this show set in Greece! Although the umbrella isn’t compulsory for this drink, it does make it a lot more fun, and give it an even stronger Mamma Mia beach vibe!

Les Miserables – French 75:

Ingredients:

• 30 ml Gin
• 15 ml Fresh Lemon Juice
• 15 ml Sugar Syrup
• 60 ml Champagne
  

This cocktail is the perfect combination of the bourgeois (champagne) meeting the paupers (gin). Champagne has classically been to drink of the upper class with gib being a cheap drink for commoners. Les Miserables is set in the French Revolution where the common man alongside wealthy students fought to overthrow the aristocracy. Therefore the French 75 is the perfect represntation. This cocktail is also a contemporary classic in musical theatre just like the cocktail itself!

Six – Bloody Mary

Ingredients:

• 45 ml Vodka
• 90 ml Tomato Juice
• 15 ml Fresh Lemon Juice
• 2 dashes Worcestershire Sauce
• Tabasco, Celery Salt, Pepper
  

This may be a bit on the nose but hear us out! Although the drink is not names after her, Catherine of Aragons daughter Mary later became known as Bloody Mary. Mary would have known all of Henrys 6 wives who the hit musical is about as she was the first born child of his. Mary took the throne despite many royal advisors wishes. She gained the name Bloody Mary due to her persucution of protestants in an attempt to restore Britian to becoming a Catholic Country. It was her father who made Britain Protestant in order to divorce her mother.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Dark and Stormy

Ingredients:

• 60 ml Goslings Rum
• 100 ml Ginger Beer
• Garnish: Slice of lime.
  

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a multi-Olivier Award winning show. It is also one of two current West End shows which are adaptations of an F. Scott Fitzgerald. The story is about a man who is born old and ages backwards. This adaptation is set in a Cornish fishing village and therefore the ingredients reflect the tipple of choice for many a salty sea dog! The name of the cocktail also brings imagery to mind of a storm off the coast of a fishing village which was too poetic to miss!

The Devil Wears Prada – Manhattan

Ingredients:

• 50 ml Rye Whiskey
• 20 ml Sweet Red Vermouth
• 1 dash Angostura Bitters
• Garnish: Cocktail Cherry
  

The Devil Wears Prada is set in a high end fashion magazine in New York so a Manhattan was the natural choice of cocktail for this show. The red vermouth and red cherry are a great nod to the iconic branding on the poster for the show. The international bartenders association labels this cocktail in the “unforgettable” category. Therefore it would be a classic cocktail we could imagine Miranda Priestly sipping on at a glamorous fashion gala.

Hamilton – Old Fashioned with a Twist

Ingredients:

• 45 ml Bourbon or Rye Whiskey
• 1 Sugar Cube
• Few Dashes Angostura Bitters
• Few Dashes Plain Water
• Garnish: Orange Twist

This musical tells an old classic story with a modern twist! Just like this classic cocktail which literally contains an orange twist. Hamilton is the all American musical on the West End and likewise, this cocktail has an all-American base with Bourbon as the base spirit. Like the above cocktail, we can imagine Alexander Hamilton and the other founding fathers drinking this in the room where it happens whilst discussing their ideas of a free America.

Book of Mormon – Shirley Temple

Ingredients:

• 150ml Ginger Ale
• 25ml Lime Juice
• 15ml Grenadine
• Garnish: Maraschino Cherry

You may have noticed something very interesting about the above ingredients… There’s no alcohol. And why would there be? Mormons don’t drink silly! So naturally, we had to give them a mocktail for this blog. A Shirley Temple is the original ‘mocktail’ which we hope gets the Mormon seal of approval.

The Lion King – Tequila Sunrise

Ingredients:

• 45 ml Tequila
• 90 ml Fresh Orange Juiceice
• 15ml Grenadine
• Garnish: Orange Slice

A Tequila Sunrise is a beautiful cocktail which represents a sunrise. The opening number for the musical and indeed the Disney animated movie is The Circle of Life. The song takes place over a sunrise over the beautiful Serengeti plains of Africa. The colours match the imagery created from both the Lion King film and musical. Lastly, it is a classic holiday cocktail and makes you feel like you’re in a hot country when you drink it.

Titanique – Margarita On The Rocks

Ingredients:

• Ice
• 50 ml Tequila
• 25 ml Lime Juice
• 20 ml Triple Sec
• Garnish: Salt and Lime Wedges.

It’s chilly, salty and refreshing, just like the North Atlantic! Titanique is a spoof musical of the film Titanic for which Celine Dion provided the soundtrack for. This award winning comedy naturally features all Celine Dion songs as she tells us all what really happened that fateful night.