Harry Clayton-Wright’s long-awaited Grand Theatre debut was lavish, subversive and unmistakably local – a theatrical homecoming shaped by the artists already building Blackpool’s creative future.
Mr Blackpool has been gestating longer than the elephants once kept at the Tower Circus.
Harry Clayton-Wright’s subversive take on the classic Blackpool variety show arrived at the Grand Theatre later than it should have done. It’s been commissioned, developed and performed elsewhere and, despite being so quintessentially Blackpool, it’s found audiences around the country before finally stepping onto one of the town’s most famous stages last week.
Mr Blackpool’s Homecoming Gala was hard earned. And, gratefully, Blackpool showed up.
Before the curtain rose the Grand Theatre was already buzzing with familiar faces from across the town’s creative scene. Artists, performers, producers, musicians and organisers all turned out to support this powerful theatre piece, painstakingly made by one of their own.
The point wasn’t to celebrate what Blackpool has been but to ask what it could be next – and who gets to shape it
Like so many talented people from Blackpool, Harry Clayton-Wright has spent years adrift from his hometown. Quite literally – he spent years working on cruise ships, perfectly embodying how Blackpool creatives are often forced to look beyond the M55 for opportunities. His homecoming being met with such enthusiasm felt like a statement of intent.
And Harry didn’t come back quietly.
Part cabaret, part fever dream, this reimagined variety spectacular was lavish, strange and hard hitting. It borrowed from the town’s entertainment heritage with archive footage and jokes that could have ben lifted straight from the comedy carpet, but it was anything but nostalgic or traditional. The point wasn’t to celebrate what Blackpool has been but to ask what it could be next – and who gets to shape it.
House of Wingz directors Sam and Aysh de Belle were central to the show, both as co-creators and performers. In contrast to Clayton-Wright they are among those who have forged a creative path within Blackpool, against the odds. Seeing the pair, who have spent years creating a platform for young people, step into the spotlight themselves was special – and not just symbolically, they were mesmerising performers, bringing Mr Blackpool rhythm, movement and grounding.
And they were sure to bring the next generation along with them. Stepping into the fourth role in the show was Blake Rainey – aka Baby Layton – a House of Wingz graduate who has been working with the De Belles since age eight and was selected for the Sadler’s Wells National Youth Dance Company in 2025. He performed confidently while bringing a playful innocence and promise to his supporting role.
At the centre of it all was Clayton-Wright, who moved between compere, comic and ringmaster as he steered the audience through the show’s shifts in tone – from broad seaside humour to darker, stranger and more exposed moments.
Culture and creativity in Blackpool is loud, brash, funny and unapologetically itself.
One of the show’s most memorable sequences came midway through and marked a shift from eyebrow-raising pier-show performance to something definitely not family-friendly. Clayton-Wright’s extraordinary striptease beneath the oversized mascot head of a freakish Mr Blackpool was weird and mesmerising. Belly laughs turned to pin-drop silence as the evening turned into something more ambitious and subversive than typical seaside performance or even drag. This was Blackpool reimagined and rebirthed. And the audience loved it.
The finale featured actual Blackpool Illuminations and Millie B – two very different Blackpool icons carrying the same message. Culture and creativity in Blackpool is loud, brash, funny and unapologetically itself. And it never stops at the curtain call.
The aftershow party began with DJ Devolicious in the VIP box and spilled out into the Grand Theatre bar and Matcham Court until the small hours. The audience spent the rest of the night with the cast talking about the minutia of Mr Blackpool, what he represents and all the reasons we love and wrestle with this town. It felt like a defining moment for what theatre in Blackpool could be.
Of course, that possibility is built on a century and a half of entertainment history – Blackpool has always known how to put on a show. But our heritage and culture isn’t something to lock behind glass, priced out of reach or managed by gatekeepers. It should be something we can live, breathe in and take part in.
Mr Blackpool felt like the arrival of something long overdue.
