Raising Gays: A New Musical About Pride and Parents

Book writer Micha Mirto and composer-lyricist Jordan Paul Clarke on writing the other side of the coming-out story

Jordan Paul Clarke and Micha Mirto are the creative partnership behind Raising Gays, a new musical arriving at the Garrick Theatre for a concert reading on 5th July 2026, the day after London Pride. Rather than following young LGBTQ+ protagonists, it plants itself firmly in the perspective of their parents, in the Somerset town of Little Malden, as they attempt to organise a float for the town’s first Pride parade. We caught up with them to find out more.

Red Bus: Raising Gays is set in Somerset rather than a major city, and centres on parents rather than queer young people themselves. What made you want to tell this particular story from that particular vantage point, and how do you hope it speaks to audiences who might not immediately see themselves as part of the LGBTQ+ community?

Jordan: For me, it started when I was talking to my mum, who’d come with me to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. We’d watched a bunch of great new musicals telling incredible stories about young queer protagonists, but then, over a cup of tea, she said something along the lines of, “I’m just not sure those shows were for me.” Immediately, I realised there needed to be a show that was made for her, that shone a light on her experience and celebrated her perspective. On the other side of every queer story is a straight person, often a parent, and whether that person is responding terribly or trying their absolute best, we don’t always spend much time exploring the nuances of their experience. By telling that side of the story, we hope we’ve created a show that speaks to anyone who feels outside conversations about otherness.

It’s a show almost entirely about straight people’s experiences of a queer world, which means it’s ultimately a show about empathy: about support between communities, cultures, and generations that don’t always try to understand one another. It’s also a show about the way we mystify parenthood and forget that our parents are human beings (people who deserve space to grow and change just as much as they give us space to grow and change). So whether you identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community or not, Raising Gays is a story about listening to one another, being patient with one another, and recognising that understanding doesn’t always begin with having the same experience, but often it begins with making space for someone else’s.

Mischa: For me it’s about grace. I am so proud of my background – I love the town I grew up in and I love that despite my coming out not being the easiest thing for my parents to hear, they stuck it out – stayed with me, even when it got uncomfortable and years later were the first people to congratulate me when I got engaged to my fiance Naomi. Why that vantage point, is because it’s our vantage point – and it also feels like it’s quite a universal thing – to be striving to love your child in the best way for them. It’s also a story that hasn’t been told yet – because it’s from a community who are, for the most part, just getting on with it.

Red Bus: The creative team brings together a background in scripted storytelling and one rooted in improvisational performance, where finding the emotional heart of a scene quickly is everything. How have those different instincts shapped the show, and do they ever pull in different directions?

Jordan: Such a great question, and yes, this comes up all the time for us! The improvisational experience in the team means we’re quick to generate material, and we have a positive shared language for vetoing the bad ideas and celebrating the best ones. I don’t think we’ve ever been pulled in totally different directions because, above all, we want to create a show that speaks for itself, and being on the same page is our top priority. The mix of disciplines is what makes musicals exciting to us, and our collaboration runs deep. Every moment of script, music, lyric, and story gets both of our full attention before we settle on an idea. Because we’re both so used to adapting, we keep evolving the show every time a puzzle piece shifts. Musicals need big beating hearts to work, and that’s where our collaboration is strongest in many ways: we both wear our hearts on our sleeves, and are quickly drawn to the emotional truth at the centre of an idea, whether that’s a dramatic scene or a heart-wrenching song

.
Mischa: Exactly and I would add that – Jordan and I know how to healthily disagree – I trust Jordan entirely and I know that if his instincts are saying something different to mine – there is likely to be gold in somewhere in that clash. We both care immensley about this show, and being able to bring thoughts, impulses and disagreements safe in the knowlege that ultimately we will do whatever serves the story best is one of the best things about this wonderful collaboration.

Red Bus: Raising Gays has been described as an “incredibly personal show.” Writing about allyship and the imperfect ways love gets expressed inevitably asks something of its creators. How do you protect that personal core as the show moves from the page through development and towards the stage?
Jordan: I think it’s impossible to remove that personal core from a show like this. Raising Gays is baked from our own experiences of our parents, and it would take a serious wrong turn for us to lose that connection to the material! In many ways, I feel like that personal core is actually protecting us. Whenever we’re writing or rehearsing and start to drift, it’s the personal foundations of the work that pull us back towards honesty. They remind us to stay truthful, and to let the show come from the most genuine place we can. There are plenty of moments when we’re tempted to heighten something, change something, or give in to the expectations of musical theatre, but these characters feel very real to us, and that keeps us grounded in the gentle, truthful reality of the show. I think if you’re writing a show and it’s not asking anything from you, you’re probably writing the wrong show. If you’re creating anything (let alone a big, emotional musical) you have to be willing to share something you genuinely believe in, and we both believe deeply in the empathetic message at the heart of this show.

Mischa: This is a great question, for me as book writer it’s about separating emotional truth from literal truth. Everything in the piece exists because it could, truthfully exist and probably has in my own life or Jordans – the emotional beats remain entirely truthful to our own experiences. That being said – our inspiration is drawn from more than just us and the characters are composites of people that we’ve met – the events themselves are entirely fictional. Which keeps not only us but also our families safe.

Red Bus: A concert reading sits at a fascinating moment in a musical’s life: public enough to test material with a real audience, but still malleable enough for that response genuinely to matter. What are you most hoping to learn from this Garrick performance, and is there anything about the show you are still genuinely uncertain about?
Jordan: The core of the show is a very simple idea – to tell a story from the perspective of the parents, rather than the kids (and there are literally no kids in the show). We feel very grateful to have a clear, simple idea as the spine of the show, and that isn’t something we’re uncertain about. It’s the pace of the full show, whether or not it will work on a BIG stage, and whether or not all the songs, applause moments and laughs will land! We believe we are working on something very special, and hope it could be on in the west end one day, so this will be a real test of whether or not it stands up in that sort of venue! We did a small reading of an early draft last year, with about 120 people coming to hear it in a fringe theatre, and they blew the ROOF off of that venue with their response. It will be fascinating to see if the reaction at the Garrick is the same, or if we have a lot more work to do! We’d love to learn that we’ve structured the show in a satisfying way, and written the clearest, most entertaining version of this story that we possibly can. It’s also an amazing thing to have this reading coming up over Pride weekend, and we hope it will be a great celebration, and an exciting event for fans of new musicals.

Mischa: Exactly that – this will be the first time a paying audience has been able to see the work, and I can’t wait to hear their responses. There is also no wrong response – all feedback is useful at this stage, because as you say – we are still able to craft and hone the piece.

Red Bus: When the audience gets on the bus home after the Garrick reading, what is the one thing you most hope they are still thinking about?
Mischa: I’d love for people to feel seen – I would love for parents watching this the be given permission to try – it’s an invitation to show up, to get it wrong and to learn from that enough to show up again and for those efforts to be recieved with grace from the people they love.

Jordan: There’s a lot that I hope people might take from the show, but if I had to pick one, I hope they will be thinking about what it means to genuinely listen to others. To sit with feelings that aren’t always comfortable. In Raising Gays, we’re asking people to emapthise with characters and situations that we wouldn’t always take time to. It’s easy to write people off because of one belief or opinion, and it’s comfortable to sit in our echo-chambers, but it’s currently more important than ever that we actively listen to those we might disagree with, to recognise the humanity of others no matter how loud or quiet their voice, and to recognise the goals we share with more people than we may ever know. Oh, and I hope they might be bopping along to a song or two from the show!

SHow details

Raising Gays plays at the Garrick Theatre, 2 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0HH on Sunday 5th July 2026 at 5pm. Running time approximately 95 minutes. Guidance 12+ (some strong language, family conflict and adult references). Tickets from £20.

Like this article? Please stay around to read my reviews: