{"id":1029076,"date":"2026-06-16T00:10:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T00:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1029076\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T00:10:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T00:10:16","slug":"danny-beard-to-star-in-new-play-inspired-by-the-life-of-paul-ogrady","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1029076\/","title":{"rendered":"Danny Beard to star in new play inspired by the life of Paul O&#8217;Grady"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race UK champion Danny Beard will take centre stage in a new play celebrating the life and legacy of Paul O\u2019Grady.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Savage, which takes its name from O\u2019Grady\u2019s drag alter ego Lily Savage, who Beard will star as and the play will be centred on, is written by Jonathan Harvey and will launch on February 13 2027 as it embarks on a UK tour.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speaking during the development of Savage, before his death aged 67 in March 2023, O\u2019Grady said of the play: \u201cI\u2019m delighted Jonathan has agreed to write the script, I really am as he\u2019s perfect for this and he\u2019s such a great writer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before his death, O\u2019Grady was involved in the creation of the play, which draws from his autobiographies to tell the story of how he developed the character of Lily.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The story follows O\u2019Grady\u2019s beginnings on Merseyside and on the London club scene, before he became well known across the country.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/embedded12106201-e1781566696499.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-242028\"\/>The play is written by Jonathan Harvey (Danny Kaan\/PA)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Harvey said: \u201cI was so thrilled when Paul gave me the opportunity to turn his life story into a stage show.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI first saw Lily in a scuzzy gay bar in West London in the late \u201980s and laughed \u2019til I hurt, so it\u2019s an honour indeed to bring his story and the colourful escapades of the blonde bombsite herself to life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis is one of those few shows that I\u2019m involved in where I can go \u2018you need to come. It\u2019s really good\u2019, because the zinging one-liners are all his.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s so sad he\u2019s not here to see it, but hopefully this will be a fitting testament to everything he achieved, and a cracking night out full of humour and heart.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"650\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/embedded265056260-scaled-e1781566709600.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-242029\"\/>Savage will focus on O\u2019Grady\u2019s life story (Stuart Wilson\/PA)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The show will begin at Leicester Curve next year, where it will run from February 13 to March 6, before moving on to the Liverpool Playhouse from March 16 to 20, then Salford\u2019s Lowry from March 23 to 27.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It will then move on to Canterbury\u2019s Marlowe Theatre from March 30 to April 3, the Theatre Royal in Bath from April 6 to 10, and Norwich\u2019s Theatre Royal from April 13 to 17, before the tour concludes at Birmingham\u2019s Hippodrome from April 20 to 24.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beard, who has appeared on Britain\u2019s Got Talent and Celebrity Big Brother, won series four of RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race UK in 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After rising to fame as Lily, O\u2019Grady went on to star in TV series such as ITV\u2019s For The Love Of Dogs and The Paul O\u2019Grady Show, as well as the BBC\u2019s Blankety Blank gameshow, which he presented as his drag persona.<\/p>\n<p>Find out the latest in Liverpool <a href=\"https:\/\/theguideliverpool.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Find out what\u2019s good up North on our new platform, The Northern Guide.\u00a0<br \/>\nFrom the best hotels, beauty spots, days out, food and more up North \u2013 visit<a href=\"https:\/\/thenorthernguide.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">\u00a0thenorthernguide.com<\/a>\u00a0and follow The Northern Guide on Instagram\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/thenorthernguideuk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">HERE.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                <script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race UK champion Danny Beard will take centre stage in a new play celebrating the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1029077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,2766,15183,393,920,4884,174154,179,75311,2764,16,15],"class_list":["post-1029076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-liverpool","tag-britain","tag-culture","tag-danny-beard","tag-england","tag-events","tag-great-britain","tag-lily-savage","tag-liverpool","tag-paul-ogrady","tag-theatre","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116756888457264314","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1029076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1029077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1029076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1029076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1029076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}