Comedian Frankie Howerd's private and public life is to be turned into a stage play.
Howerd's End, by Mark Farrelly, is set in the living room of Wavering Down, the Somerset home of Howerd and Dennis Heymer. It explores through a series of flashbacks the development of Howerd’s style of comedy - from his first appearance on the BBC radio programme Variety Bandbox in 1947 to his final performances in the 1990s when he had a reinvention as a cult godfather of stand up.
The play also shines a spotlight on the clandestine union which made Frankie’s big dipper of a career possible: his extraordinary 35-year relationship with his lover Heymer, a wine waiter Frankie met in 1958 at the Dorchester Hotel while dining with Sir John Mills. Howerd was 40 and Heymer was 28. He would go on to become Howerd’s manager and anchor, but his existence was strictly guarded from the public, not least because for many years the relationship was illegal (acts between consenting males being illegal in England and Wales until 1967) and the couple feared blackmail if anyone beyond their immediate circle found out.
Howerd’s End also shows the other cost of fame – Howerd’s neurosis, his unfaithfulness and use of LSD that pushed his career and relationship to the brink of destruction. It also highlights Heymer’s struggle: seemingly content with coming second, yet yearning to hear how much he was appreciated, and wondering if the love into which he had deeply fallen was, in truth, unrequited. More than simply a tribute show about a comedian who outlasted them all, Howerd’s End is also a love story about a relationship that tried to defy every odd – including death. Above all, the play confronts every human’s toughest challenge: letting go.
It will get its world premiere at Greenwich Theatre on Tuesday September 12 and run for 2 weeks. Tickets go on sale Tuesday March 7 here.
Full casting and creative team to be announced shortly.
The play will mix stand-up, dialogue and monologue and will be told from Dennis’ point of view. It has been created from a process of deep research, workshop, visits to Frankie and Dennis’ home, and the support of the Frankie Howerd Trust.
Howerd was born a hundred years ago today, on March 6, 1917. He has previously been the subject of a BBC drama in which he was played by David Walliams.
