Review: WHAT A GAY DAY!, Jack Studio Theatre

They were, mostly, gentler days. In the 70s and 80s, light entertainment adopted the mien of an amusing uncle at Christmas. Respectful, charming, even if you caught a hint that the naughtiness might go a little too far after a drink or two, but there was no creepiness, nothing sordid in the silliness. Those revelations still lay far in the future. 

Perhaps the epitome of that warm, ever so slightly subversive, Saturday evening presence in our living rooms was Larry Grayson. He told stories about an ever-expanding cast of English eccentrics - Slack Alice, Pop-It-In Pete and his special friend, Everard etc - in the high camp tradition, but with an intimacy that shrank a theatre or a TV studio into a garden fence or front step. Like all great technicians, Grayson made a fiendishly difficult trick look easy - every person felt he was talking to them and them alone.

In What a Gay Day! we see how, and revealingly, why this was done. From the boy born out of wedlock in 1923, given up to foster parents, but loved deeply by his birth mother and new family (who were loved in return), to the sickly schoolboy infected by the showbiz bug, to the long apprenticeship on the road in drag and standup, to real success only coming in middle age. We learn of the many tragedies that hit Grayson and why Everard meant so much more than a stooge for tales of mishaps.

Luke Adamson brings Grayson back with all your favourite catchphrases, the signature pout and flounce and the grin that revealed that he was always attuned to the humour that bubbles below the surface of life for those with eyes to see. Crucially, and I’ll confess to being sceptical about whether this could be done, Tim Connery’s script, weaving biographical detail with bits from his routines, convinces us of that alchemical magic that built the connection between him and his adoring public.  

They weren’t all adoring though. The Gay Liberation Front protested outside his shows, believing the hard won rights of gay men were being undermined by this mincing stereotype of a confirmed bachelor who didn’t so much celebrate his sexuality as caricature it for financial gain. They had a point. Even so, Grayson could disarm them once he spoke to them, his exaggeration born out of authenticity - he was being true to himself, his greatest asset. They were gentler times - mainly, and, it has to be said, only if you were white and male.

It’s a beautiful, life-affirming 80 minutes that is nostalgic for sure, but poignant rather than sentimental. It’s performed with respect, but the tone never turns hagiographic, the man never becomes the myth. My only complaint is that it was over far too soon. Perhaps there’s a bigger show with another comedian or two as subjects (in the style of the wonderful The Last Laugh) somewhere in the future. 

For now, we can delight in this portrayal of William White who became Barry Breen who became Larry Grayson - a one-off, whose legend only expands in the rear view mirror as those of so many of his contemporaries shrink.

What A Gay Day! at the Jack Studio Theatre until 30 August