Review: Daddy’s First Gay Date, Seven Dials Playhouse

I won’t lie, moving the clocks back and the sudden onset of early dark nights hit me like a train last weekend, lowering my mood. Thankfully, I didn’t follow my instincts to book a winter sun holiday, because tonic for the winter blues lies much closer to home.

Daddy’s First Gay Date, written by and starring Sam Danson, is a delightful new romantic comedy, currently on tour in the UK and gracing London with its presence at the Seven Dials Playhouse.

The play opens with Ben (Danson) clumsily breaking up with his girlfriend Helen (Megan Edmonson) in a local restaurant after fifteen years together in order to explore his newly-discovered bisexuality.  At the very moment of their separation, he finds himself in the arms of their camp waiter, Tim (Dior Clarke).  What follows is a zipwire-fast ride through the pitfalls of love and sexuality.

My pre-reading about the play explained to me that it explores bisexuality, gay love and betrayal, but I feel that that is overstating it a little: it explores those themes in the same way that you explore your front garden by opening your living room curtains and looking out of the window. Let’s be honest, these issues are there more as a vehicle for the comedy. But my word, what comedy!  Danson is certainly one to watch. He combines a blunt northern voice with unashamed silliness and a fresh, broad and detailed observational eye in a totally unique way.

His character, Ben, is ostensibly bumbling, emotionally clumsy and potentially infuriating, but through humour, we can’t help but fall in love with his awkwardness and sincerity. I would love to be able to relay to you some of the best comic moments in the play, but there were so many I genuinely couldn’t keep up, and eventually put my reviewer’s notepad down and let the pure joy wash over me. The consequence of this pace, however, was that sometimes I felt myself needing Danson to lean more into the emotional impact of some of the action, if only to allow me to get my breath back after laughing so hard. For example, Helen takes the news that her boyfriend of 15 years is breaking up with her with a reaction befitting someone whose boyfriend has cut his toenails and left the clippings on the carpet. 

That said, some necessary emotional depth comes from the superlative supporting performances.  Edmonson brings warmth and compassion to Helen, who could so easily have been written as little more than a scorned ex. She radiates understanding and affection as she faces unexpected and unique challenges. Similarly, Clarke casts a knowing depth into what could be a stock ‘femme’ role, and in a sense, his is the character that travels the furthest on this journey: through addiction and abuse to self-awareness and acceptance.   

Director Rikki Beadle-Blair keeps the action playful, using the actors’ energy to provide the necessary tools for effective storytelling. Dom Patel’s lighting steps up to the plate when the simple black box set needs important and cinematic cues, while the carefully selected music adds warmth to tender moments, as well as shifting emotional gears, something the show could explore more.

However, this is a romantic comedy with a big heart, and laughter is the best therapy. That train that hit me last weekend just got hit head-on with one coming in the other direction, filled with Danson’s effervescent script and flawed but lovable characters that reflect, above all, the hope for better in all of us. 

Written by Sam Danson
Directed by Rikki Beadle-Blair
Technical Design by Dom Patel

Daddy’s First Gay Date plays at the Seven Dials Playhouse until Sunday 16 November 2025