What happens when Pride is seen through the eyes of the parents rather than the children? In Raising Gays, writers Micha Mirto and Jordan Paul Clarke explore modern parenthood, allyship and family dynamics through a heartfelt and hilarious new musical set in a small Somerset town preparing for its first-ever Pride parade.
Raising Gays plays at the Garrick Theatre on 5th July 2026. Tickets are available here.
Ahead of the concert reading, we caught up with Micha and Jordan to discuss the inspiration behind the show, why they wanted to tell a story from the parents’ perspective, and what they hope audiences will take away from it.
Raising Gays balances sharp comedy with emotional honesty – how did you approach telling a story about allyship and parenting without losing the humour or heart?
Jordan: Thankfully, the humour and heart breathe out of the story so naturally. When you’re telling a story, you always want to balance the truth of the drama with the natural human comedy that comes up, and Raising Gays made that an enjoyable challenge at every stage. Parenting and family dynamics are inherently funny, often because of things that really shouldn’t be. The whole show is about people saying the wrong thing, misunderstanding each other, or desperately trying to connect in ways that don’t quite land. At the same time, we were always writing from a place of empathy. If the audience understands why a character is behaving the way they are, the comedy becomes funnier and the pathos becomes more moving. The heart comes from taking those characters seriously, even when they’re making us laugh
Misha: I second this – these characters are inately funny, as are the people they’re composits of. Humour has always been rife in my family. Having a great day? Find the humour. Having a bad day? Find the humour and to be honest my family are at their absolute funniest in the darkest moments. All this to say – writing these characters as overly sincere would never have made sense because the book is them struggling to say what they mean – and the music and lyrics are everything they wish they could say.
Setting the musical around a town’s first Pride parade creates both celebration and tension — what interested you about exploring Pride through the perspective of parents rather than queer children themselves?
J: For me, it came from a conversation with my mum at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival after we’d spent time watching new queer musicals together. She said she wasn’t sure those shows had been for her, and I immediately thought, “Wouldn’t it be amazing to create a show that really was?” Then she told me about a friend who had come out in her late twenties, and her first question was, “How can I help her parents?” That stayed with me. It made me realise there was a story worth telling about the people standing just outside those conversations who want to do the right thing and often aren’t given space to fail first. Pride is a joyful celebration, but it’s also a moment of reflection, and I was fascinated by the stories happening around the edges of that experience.
M: I think this comes from the fact we are now in the privilidged position of having access to a large amount of stories about queer people and in these narratives their parents are either homophobic villians, or incredible allys but they rarely take the middle ground of parents who are just trying to figure it out. It also provides an opportunity to put the spotlight on the other side of the story – and hopefully start a conversations.
The show examines well-meaning people confronting their own blind spots – how important was it to portray those characters with empathy rather than judgement?
J: It was probably the most important thing. The moment you start judging your characters, they stop feeling like people and start feeling like arguments. Most people are trying to do what they think is right, even when they get things wrong, and that’s what interested us. This show isn’t about blame or criticism. It’s about recognising how difficult it can be to grow, particularly when you’re asked to rethink something you’ve believed for a long time. For me, I think about my dad. When I first came out, he found it incredibly difficult, but over time he changed. He went from someone who struggled to understand me to someone who genuinely wanted to know about my life, and my boyfriend. That change happened because there was empathy from both sides, and so we want to remind people that growth is possible at any stage of life.
M: I agree – we absolutely need to open up the opportunity for conversations – and if I look back at who I was in my early 20’s I don’t necessarily want to be judged by my actions (way too much tomfoolery), I know more now, about who I am and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to learn, to change and to grow. When we remove that opportunity from people we are trapping them where they are and creating a shame cycle which doesn’t help anyone.
This concert reading arrives during London Pride weekend and before the show’s full development journey – what does sharing the piece with audiences at this stage allow you to discover as creators?
J: Gosh, it’s going to be so telling! We’ve only ever shared parts of the show publicly before, so it’s a real gift to find out what an audience who has chosen to be there makes of it. Theatre only truly exists when it’s in front of people. We’ll finally learn about those applause buttons, the jokes we think are hilarious, and whether the pacing of the story really works. For us, this stage is about listening. We’re excited to discover which moments resonate, where people laugh, where they get emotional, and what conversations they have afterwards. We’ve already had some wonderful responses to songs from the show at concerts and cabarets around the country, so we know some of the ingredients work. This is the first time we get to see how the whole shebang!
M: Exactly as Jordan says – it’s an opportunity to pressure test the piece, and get audience feedback after all we aren’t making this show for ourself. The audience is our final collaborator – so it’s about time we asked them what they think!
Jordan, how did the music help capture both the chaos and tenderness of families trying to communicate across generational and cultural divides?
One of the things I love about musical theatre is that music allows people to express things they don’t yet know how to say out loud. Families often struggle to communicate because everyone is carrying different fears, expectations, and assumptions into the same conversation. Music gives us access to what’s happening underneath all of that and allows these characters to share what’s really eating them up inside. The score constantly moves between comedy and sincerity because that’s what family life feels like. There are reflective moments where the audience discovers that everyone wants something surprisingly similar, and there are lighter moments that remind us how human these characters are. I also knew I wanted the score to be a real bop. Older characters deserve great pop/rock songs too, especially when they’re yearning to connect with or be seen by a younger generation.
With such an experienced West End cast bringing the material to life for the first time, what have the actors revealed about the characters or the show that perhaps surprised you during rehearsals?
J: We feel SO lucky to have this cast. We firmly believe that theatre is created by three groups of people: the people backstage (writers, creatives, tech etc.), the actors, and the audience. The actors are the collaborators with the most immediate relationship to the audience, so it’s vital that they feel ownership of the work. One of the joys of working with great performers is that they constantly reveal things you didn’t know were there. They’ll find moments, relationships, and emotional connections that never occurred to you while writing. Even in scenes or songs we couldn’t know better, they’ve uncovered new layers of vulnerability and surprise, and they’ve made us laugh at moments we never expected to be funny. If this show achieves anything, I hope it shines a light on six phenomenal artists doing extraordinary work on that stage!
M: Absolutely – I also think, from a book perspective, if these actors can’t make the lines work – then the lines don’t work and need to be changed. They make constant brilliant offers, which is a total gift but mainly – they have elevated my faith in the work – if they’re on board, then we must be doing something right!