It was Queen Elizabeth II who said, “grief is the price we pay for love“. Regardless of who actually coined the phrase, I’d say it is a pretty accurate summary of Sam Morrison’s Sugar Daddy, a one-hour, one-man show that is currently running at the Off-West End venue Underbelly Boulevard Soho.
The venue is small, intimate, and is the perfect home for an intimate storytelling such as this. The piece is co-produced by three icons, Alan Cumming, Billy Porter, and Ryan Cunningham. With these names at the top of the production, you know you’re going to get something spectacular, something meaningful, and something not in the mainstream era. All the reasons to go to the theatre, in my opinion.
As an audience member, you enter the performance space with Sam Morrison, protagonist, author and main character, sitting centre stage. He is quiet; we’re not sure what to make of him.
The stage setting is simple: a few chairs marked with the Cross (signalling a funeral or church), there are a few seagulls hanging with what appears to be bondage gear, there is a mount, and there are drapes. For most of the show, Sam stands downstage, regaling his truth to his audience.
The piece starts. Sam addresses the audience, no fourth wall here, what ensues is a tour-de-force emotional rollercoaster performance where Sam shares intimate details with us about his experience with his partner and the grief that followed the unexpected death of said partner.
Now, with grief as a subject, you’d expect silence, bowed heads, tears and an audience fulling their British stiff upper lip status; however, this piece of theatre is anything but. Sam is an extraordinary storyteller. He holds the ability to put the audience in the palm of his hand and keep them safe. He can be truly vulnerable (not about his sexual life; that is celebrated often and often comes with accompanying mimes!) but about his feelings surrounding love and loss. Again, to steal a quote, this time from Vera Brittain’s Testament of Youth – “it is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all” – it appears so from this performance.
No doubt for Sam, writing and performing this monologue is cathartic, but also for an audience member who has recently lost someone of great significance, there was a gratifying nod that I’m not alone.
The story itself is wonderfully queer, mostly laugh-out-loud funny, and the premiere ended up with raucous clapping and whooping and a standing ovation. It’s not for the faint of heart, or those of you who aren’t used to laughing at a bad situation – after all, another statement – what doesn’t kill you makes for a very funny story in the pub!
I have told everyone I know to go see this show; it’s only on for about five weeks, this time. Go catch it, laugh, cry, release, and above everything, celebrate life.
Review by Faye Stockley
One summer, Sam met the sexy silver zaddy of his dreams. But in the midst of the pandemic, the love of his life tragically passed away. Searching for a way to survive his grief, Sam did the only thing he knew: he turned the unbearable into comedy. Done live on stage. In front of thousands of strangers. Some of them straight. All around the globe.
You’ll laugh. You might cry. You’ll definitely text your friends about it afterwards.
Edgewood Entertainment presents Sam Morrison’s
SUGAR DADDY
Underbelly Boulevard
5 March to 4 April 2026
