Sugar Daddy review: the heartbreaking story only Sam Morrison can tell

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect going into Sam Morrison’s solo comedy show Sugar Daddy. But now I understand that no press release could truly put into words what was about to unfold on stage in front of me. Running from 5 March to 4 April at the Underbelly Boulevard in Soho, London, Sugar Daddy is a story of many ups and downs. Morrison gives a comedic, personal account of the fluctuating life of a gay man who falls in love with a bear (the human, hairy kind) at an LGBTQ+ festival in Provincetown, Massachusetts. What follows is a relationship that blossoms with passionate energy and adorable wit. Until tragedy strikes and Jonathan, Morrison’s boyfriend, passes away due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Those two sentences perfectly capture the breakneck energy and pace that the show maintains throughout.

“Sam Morrison’s delivery is rapid and articulate – not slurred, just incredibly fast”

Through intimate moments of love, loss and health challenges, Morrison’s performance feels completely his own. The production was unlike anything I’d seen before. His delivery is rapid and articulate – not slurred, just incredibly fast – sometimes at a pace where I found myself trying to keep up with the jokes. That said, it certainly didn’t stop the audience, who seemed to laugh at almost every punchline. Through spot-on sound effects, a “voice of god”, which he calls his fairy drag mother, and pure moments of vulnerability, Morrison captures the complex hurdles of navigating life after heartbreaking loss.

“It feels calming, not just for him, but for the audience too”

ADHD becomes a central theme of the play. Morrison, full of impulse, struggles to tell the audience how he truly feels after Jonathan’s death; instead using comedy as a distraction. It was in those moments, when Morrison felt like he was going to and fro with his own inner demons, that the experience of grief felt most relatable. But like anyone in the crowd, he shares with us his happy place: by the waves of Provincetown. As the calm, deep-blue lighting and projected backdrop transports us to the place he once shared with his late love, he settles. As he moves his hands in the rhythm of the tide, it feels calming, not just for him, but for the audience too. Amid the usual chaos, Morrison prancing across the stage and delivering a plethora of relatable, raunchy gay jokes, he finds serenity. In these quieter moments, he tells the audience how deeply the loss affected him, mourning Jonathan in a poetic way that is both honest and unexpectedly heartwarming.

Why is the play called Sugar Daddy?

Though I sometimes felt slightly unsettled by the discombobulated push and pull between the show’s harder and softer moments, most of my unanswered questions were eventually put to rest. One question, however, remained: why is the play called Sugar Daddy?

Morrison reveals that he was diagnosed with diabetes after Jonathan’s death; something he suggests may have been triggered by shock or grief. Now attached to a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM), he says the device reminds him of his late love. Dating an older man, many people assumed Jonathan was Morrison’s “sugar daddy”, and with his diagnosis, the title takes on a bittersweet new meaning – the perfect fit for his off-West End show. 

Sugar Daddy tickets are available now via the official West End Theatre website.