Daddy’s First Gay Date: A New Queer Rom-Com coming to Seven Dials Playhouse

Following the success of his debut show BI-TOPIA (★★★★ The Stage, ★★★★★ Reviews Hub), Manchester-based writer and performer Sam Danson returns with Daddy’s First Gay Date, a sharply comic new play directed by Rikki Beadle-Blair. Opening at Seven Dials Playhouse, London, from 28th October – 16th November 2025, the queer rom-com explores masculinity, shame, and coming out in your 30s, all set against the backdrop of a small northern town. With a story that follows Ben as he navigates first-time queer dating, impending fatherhood, and the messy truths of identity, the play promises both humour and heart while shining a spotlight on experiences often absent from the romantic comedy genre

What first sparked the idea for Daddy’s First Gay Date? 

I knew from the beginning that I wanted to do a show about the highs and lows of queer dating, it’s such an interesting, yet relatively untapped world to explore. At first, it was just going to be the main character going on several dates with vastly different people, eventually though, I begun focusing in on a particular story of a man coming out in his 30s, and entering the queer world for the first time, there were so many questions that came from thinking how the character would react to that. Then there’s the countless questions around the person he dates, and his ex-partner, suddenly it’s a full show of chaos and drama!

Why did you want to frame the story as a romantic comedy? 

It's such a widely loved genre, so applying places and people not often seen in that genre felt like an interesting approach. Rom-coms are also ‘feel-good’ at their core, and as I’m naturally cynical, it felt like a cathartic challenge!

Did writing this play feel different from creating BI-TOPIA? 

Very! Stepping out of my comfort zone of largely autobiographical work was very new to me, but something I was sure I wanted to do. I also was excited at the prospect of writing for other actors. This play goes well beyond my own experiences, I’ve learnt so much doing it and needing to take far more time to listen to other people’s lived experience and use that to influence the script.

Do you think humour makes it easier for audiences to engage with difficult themes? 

For me it’s what comes naturally, I don’t want to say comedy is a better or worse way of addressing difficult themes, but it’s clearly effective, there are countless comedies that have fuelled powerful social discourse, but the same can be said for more dramatic work. Ultimately, I think the best dramas contain comedy at times, and the best comedies contain drama at times. The main reason I’m drawn to comedy though is because it’s the genre I’m most comfortable in at the moment, it used to terrify me to write more emotional or darker subject matter and not have a joke in there somewhere to break the tension, so much so that I would completely avoid it, but I’m getting over myself in recent times. 

Ben discovers he’s going to be a father on the same night he meets the man he ends up. Why bring fatherhood into the story? How do you think impending parenthood changes the stakes of the play? 

I think it certainly raises the stakes of the situation, but there’s a few reasons I wanted to explore that side of things. It tests the character’s morality; does living one’s ‘truth’ matter when a child is being brought into the world? But primarily, I wanted to showcase another under-represented aspect of queer life which is navigating a family as an LGBTQ+ person. There’s plenty of them in the world, and most of them far more functional as a family than the one I’m presenting in this show (thankfully)!

Do you think attitudes to masculinity and sexuality are shifting for younger generations, and how does Daddy’s First Gay Date sit in that conversation? 

They’re shifting both positively and negatively in younger generations to be honest, it’s a scary time and one of the first times younger generations have been so notably shifting towards the far right (politically), at the same time, some extremely inspiring people are also coming out of that generation and I could ramble for a long time, so I won’t, because ultimately Daddy’s First Gay Date looks at suburban society of all generations, and the issues that face those communities on issues of sexuality and masculinity.  It’s a very different experience to those growing up in metropolitan areas, but there are similarities that everyone will be able to relate to.

What’s the most challenging part of performing your own writing? 

Treating it with as much respect as I would somebody else’s script! I often ad-lib in early stages of rehearsal because in my head, I know what I’m trying to say. My director Rikki Beadle-Blair then beats me with an imaginary stick, reminding me to keep to what I wrote, and eventually I do (mostly)!

If you weren’t making theatre, what do you think you’d be doing instead? I never really fully considered anything other than being a writer/performer, but I do have a big passion for animal conservation, I’ve volunteered with several charities, and hope to continue doing so!

Daddy’s First Gay Date is at the Seven Dials Playhouse, London from 28th October – 16th November 2025. For tickets and more information, visit: https://www.sevendialsplayhouse.co.uk/shows/daddys-first-gay-date