Simon Ward reviews Daddy’s First Gay Date at the Seven Dials Playhouse

Rather touchingly listed on the venue’s website as ‘Writer, Producer and Ben’ this show is clearly Sam Danson’s baby. Billed as a romantic comedy, much humour is found in the culture clash between the straight world from which Ben is emerging and the bisexual/gay world he is seeking to join. Daddy’s First Gay Date is set in a small town up North, the kind of place where everyone knows everyone else’s business. Ben has been with childhood sweetheart Helen (Megan Edmondson) for fifteen years, and he still likes her, maybe even loves her, but something still just doesn’t feel right. The night that he finally plucks up courage to break it to her is the very night that she tells him that she’s pregnant. And yet he still can’t keep his eyes off the sexy waiter(Dior Clarke) lurking with intent in the background.

As a Black Londoner living in a small Northern town, said sexy waiter, Tim, is an outsider on many counts, and has the scars to prove it. If he sometimes seems to be in a different world to Ben, that’s because he is. He is openly, flamboyantly gay, yet still harbours self-doubt and insecurity, not helped by a selfish and uncaring boyfriend. He is the reluctant guide to Ben, as he struggles to understand the rules of the new game he wants to start playing. There are some nice inversions of cliché – Ben is a big fan of musicals while Tim has no interest; Tim would rather drink beer than a fancy pink cocktail – and the differences in expectations are well drawn. But Tim is also wary that Ben might just be another ‘tourist’ – like the married men he meets on Grindr who want sex but no talking or looking at their faces.

It is true that Ben bounces back and forth between the gay and the straight – he continually turns to Helen to bale him out and pick him up when he needs a lift home. One of the best, and funniest, sequences in the show is on one such car journey which turns into a beautifully choreographed show-tune singalong. The relationship between Ben and Helen is utterly believable – they are old friends who care about each other, regardless of the stupid things they might do. And splitting up ironically has the effect of making them closer than ever, added to the impending arrival of their child, of course.

Director Rikki Beadle Blair keeps the action zipping along and the show can’t help but get under your skin. While there may not be many big laughs, it is humorous and touching. Sam Danson plays Ben with a winning charm as a foil to his often clueless behaviour. This charm eventually wears down the sharp edges and sharp tongue which Dior Clarke brings to Tim, and reveals the vulnerable human side beneath the carapace. The long-suffering Helen is played with warmth and wit by Megan Edmondson, and her role as midwife to Ben’s new role is moving and believable.

Daddy’s First Gay Date is running at the Seven Dials Playhouse, 1A Tower Street, London WC2H 9NP until 16th November