David Benson
 David
Benson rose to fame following the incredible success of
his debut solo show about Kenneth Williams. After winning a Fringe First
at the Edinburgh festival in 1996, and touring the UK extensively, David
performed the show in London's West End.
Benson now has ten shows in his repertoire, and all remain
available for touring. Click the name of the show below to jump to information
about it.
Doctor whom? My Search for Samuel Johnson
David Benson's new show digs into the life and work of Doctor Johnson three hundred years since his birth, and celebrates the undiminished power of his extraordinary writings and reflections. Whether you have explored Johnson's work in detail or only know him from the Blackadder sketches, this delightful and highly personal performance will bring to life this most fascinating of characters. Previewing at Doctor Johnson's House, the British Library, Bristol Tobacco Factory, and the Ustinov Studio in Bath, before a premiere at the Edinburgh fringe in August 2009 (Assembly Rooms). Available for touring from Autumn 2009.
David Benson Sings Noel Coward
 Coward’s wonderful songs brilliantly performed by David Benson, returning to the role he played in the BBC series Goodnight Sweetheart. This show premiered at the Assembly Rooms during the 2008 Edinburgh fringe, before touring in an extended version throughout 2009/10. Musical staging and piano accompaniment by Stewart Nicholls.
Featured songs include Mad Dogs and Englishmen, London Pride, Mad About the Boy, I’ll See You Again, If Love Were All, Mrs. Worthington.
When David was twelve years old his grandfather gave him a 78rpm record of Coward singing his comic patter song The Stately Homes of England. He was immediately hooked. Now at last he is set to indulge his life-long passion for these songs with this sparkling tribute to The Master.
"David Benson has struck gold again, this time raiding Noël Coward's songbook. He becomes the Master as he sings: dapper in tuxedo, he flutters his eyelids and delivers that clipped repartee to perfection. There's plenty of what you'd expect - Parisian Pierrot, Mad About the Boy - and much you wouldn't. He opens with There are Bad Times Just Around the Corner: 'Hurray, hurray, hurray! Misery's here to stay!' he trills. Kinda put his finger on it, there." Daily Telegraph
"Benson relates a biographical snapshot of Coward with stories and anecdotes in between the numbers. This is not impersonation per se, but, here and there, he captures his unique, cool, sophisticated manner with perfect vocal intonation. The songs - with extraordinary complex rhymes at a frenetic pace - blend Gilbert and Sullivan poetic wit with 1920s/1930s American blues, moving between the comical and sentimental. Benson has taken Coward's classics but wisely gives them a fresh, personal and contemporary performance. The lights dim and he sings the beautiful bittersweet, "I am no good at love" and the heartbreaking ballad "Mad about the Boy" with a rich, romantic Sinatra air. With a theatre trunk of feather boas, hats and jackets, Benson sings, acts and amuses his way through this delightfully entertaining and enlightening show. As well as a smooth, multi-layered voice, his imaginative talent for mime and mannerism is quite brilliant. After 12 successful years at the Fringe, David Benson once more undoubtedly proves that he has a Coward-style Talent to Amuse." **** Edinburghguide.com
Think No Evil Of Us: My Life With Kenneth Williams
This classic one-man show unlocks the character of one
of Britain's best-loved and most-missed entertainers. In this thrilling
and hilarious tour de force we see Kenneth Williams at his funniest
- and at his most badly behaved. David Benson’s uncanny impersonation
was also recently heard on the acclaimed BBC Radio 4 series, ‘The
Private World of Kenneth Williams’.
Following its Fringe First winning
debut at the Edinburgh Festival in 1996, ‘Think No Evil Of Us’ played
in the West End and toured the country. It returns in 2006 for a tenth
anniversary tour, to celebrate
its enduring popularity both with audiences who loved Kenneth Williams
and those who know nothing of his work.
This brilliantly performed semi-autobiographical
show also reveals how David's unusual childhood led to an extraordinary
connection with the
Carry On star. Packed with scenes and dialogue that will stay with you
- for life.
"
Unforgettable & inspirational theatre" Independent on Sunday
" Brilliant - a truly remarkable event" Mail On Sunday
" A masterpiece of comic timing" London Evening Standard
Runs
1 hour 35 minutes plus interval
Nothing But Pleasure
This funny and intimate monologue relives the rise of Blair and the demise of Diana, and asks how both have continued to effect us since.
In a tour de force of celebrity
impersonation to rival his incredible Kenneth Williams show, Benson
introduces a celebrity cast one by one: the Queens - Elizabeth, Elton
and George, the two Toms - Hanks and Cruise, a 'tragic but buoyant'
Michael Barrymore, all upstaged by the presence of the Queen Mother.
This
show has played to sell-out crowds at the Edinburgh festival, in London
and at Sydney Opera House. It is being revived for just eight performances at the Edinburgh festival this year.
"Sensitive and liberating and, often, dangerously
funny" The
Times
"Masterful comic insight...
miss him at your peril" The
Independent
"Sophisticated and touching" The Guardian
Runs 1 hour 20 minutes with no interval
To Be Frank: Frankie Howerd and
the Secret of Happiness
 Frankie Howerd – the man with the catchphrases:
Titter Ye Not! Shut yer faces! Not on your Nellie! Known to millions
as Lurcio the Roman slave in ‘Up Pompeii’, and as the star
of innumerable films. Howerd’s career resembled a roller coaster
ride – lurching from despair to triumph and back again, before
ending up the toast of a new generation.
Howerd is the subject of the
long-awaited follow up to David Benson’s
classic Fringe First award winning show Think No Evil of Us – My
Life With Kenneth Williams. Benson gets right under the skin of his
subjects, to show them as they really were behind the mask of comedy.
The show ends with a brilliant Frankiesque finale: a song, a frighteningly
funny comedy routine and the Secret of True Happiness.
“Wonderful! Extremely funny and genuinely poignant
too” Edinburgh
Evening News
“Another winner for Benson!” Daily Mail
“It's a gem! We have a rich comedy past, but we
need people like Mr Benson to debunk it for us.” Independent on Sunday
Star Struck: A Fantasy Celebrity
Party
David Benson’s hilarious and heart-warming shows
have been seen all over the world, including a West End run for his
classic Fringe First winning tribute to Kenneth Williams. His latest
show, directed by David Sant of comedy troupe Peepolykus, celebrates
and exposes our national obsession with stardom, featuring an amazing
range of impressions along the way.
Candid revelations about modern
starlets are followed by a fantasy party hosted by Noel Coward and
attended by many more of David’s childhood
heroes, including Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and Orson Welles. Rat
Pack revelations and Groucho Marx wisecracks flow as freely as the
booze, until things take a turn for the worse…
Star Struck hilariously
debunks the cult of celebrity with a little help from a real-life
encounter with Quentin Crisp. It embarks on
this tour having delighted audiences and critics at both the Edinburgh
festival
and in London’s West End.
“The dinner party of your dreams, with guests Sinatra,
Coward, Astaire and Morecambe in David Benson’s musical comedy” Evening
Standard Critics Choice
“His party is a blast” Independent on Sunday
“Hilarious, moving and utterly magical entertainment” Edinburgh
Guide
“A bag full of great impressions” The List
David Benson's Haunted Stage
 Award-winning performer David Benson brings classic ghost
stories to spine-chilling life in this spooky show for all the family.
What
are ghosts anyway? And has anyone seen one in this theatre? Sceptic
or not, you’ll think you have by the end of this deeply creepy
show. Benson fills the stage with brilliant enactments of stories,
including a tale about his grandfather’s ghost sightings together
with new versions of classic spine-chillers.
In the comedy highlight
of the show, the audience take part in a spiritualist
service under the all-seeing eyes of a camp psychic. This is David
Benson’s
fifth solo show - best known of the Fringe First winner’s previous
work is Think No Evil Of Us: My Life With Kenneth Williams.
“A great big box of ghostly delights, suitable
for 8 to 80 year olds. Just like the scares and thrills of watching
Doctor Who as a kid. Except
this time there is no sofa to hide behind.” Radio Forth
"Using little more than his camp charisma and talent
for impersonation, Benson, best-known for his portraits of Kenneth Williams
and Frankie
Howerd, offers a funny, honest and poignant exploration of our relationship
with the paranormal." Metro
"It all seems very real, and very, very scary...
David Benson's Haunted Stage will delight believers and sceptics alike." Edinburgh
Evening News
Running time 1 hour 20 minutes (no interval)
It's A Plot! David Benson's Conspiracy
Cabaret
 This brilliant new comedy is a compelling collision of
songs, stories and conspiracy theories, looking at the truth and fiction
behind world events past and present.
Fringe First winner David Benson
addresses our strange relationship with the official version of events,
and considers what is so fascinating
about alternative explanations, and whether they make any more sense.
Benson
is joined on stage by composer Alex Silverman on the piano, playing
brilliant original and classic songs to provide light relief
between
considering the truth and fiction behind everything from JFK to
9/11.
“Masterful comic insight. And he can sing, the
swine. Miss him at your peril.” The Independent
“Even if he neglects to mention Elvis being alive
on Mars, you would swear that Frank Sinatra is alive - and in excellent
singing voice -
here on earth” Metro
“There are actors, script-writers, comedians, stand
up comics, impersonators, singers - and then there is David Benson,
a theatrical enigma who does
it all, with a broad, cheeky smile.” Edinburgh Guide
Why Pay More?
Nominated for Best Solo Show, The Stage Awards
2006
An intimate and funny show imbued with the
uncompromising honesty and unique audience rapport that has characterised
his work
from the beginning. An irresistible blend of chat, characters, impersonations
and sketches with a few songs throw in for good measure. The main theme
of the show is how an unexpected move to Edinburgh led to him taking
up acting, and eventually developing a career as a solo performer.
Edinburgh Guide - 4 stars - By Vivien Devlin
Actor,
singer and comic entertainer, David Benson, has been performing
at the Fringe for a staggering 24 years. The first few shows
were
as a schoolboy, college student and in community theatre, working
his way up the professional ladder. In 1996 he stunned audiences
and critics with his brilliantly perceptive portrayal of Kenneth
Williams in Think no Evil of Us which won a Fringe First and
catapulted him into showbiz stardom - he has never looked back.
To the cynics
who say the Edinburgh Fringe rarely finds new talent, Benson's
Festival fame and success tells a very different story.
Previous
shows have involved humourous monologues on various themes
- Princess Diana, ghosts, conspiracy theories - involving an
elaborate set, costumes, music and lighting. In this new show
there's just
an empty stage, a high stool and a microphone. That's confidence
for you.
The theme this year is David Benson himself, reminiscing
the good times and the bad at the Fringe - the experience as
an actor putting on a show. He describes the boys' school production
of a
Biblical rock opera which received a dismal 2 star review, putting
him off critics for life, then there's an experimental play using
real life homeless people, with affectionate impersonations of
some Grassmarket characters clutching their cans of Carlsberg.
Through
stories, sketches and a few delightful songs, we follow Benson's "dramatic" journey
around the Fringe.
There are few performers with whom I would
gladly spend an hour hearing about their life and work. But
with David Benson, there
is not an
ounce of vanity. He is not simply an actor, but a philosopher,
involving the audience, questioning our perspective and views
of the world,
politics and society today. And what's more he sings like a
young Frank Sinatra. This is pure Fringe theatre at its best
- genuinely
unique and inspiring entertainment, which reveals as much about
Benson as it does about ourselves.
The List
Fusing the camp and the sophisticated, David
Benson exudes a natural charm during the songs he performs with Dean
Martin-style
cool, and
the anecdotes that interlink them. The latter occasionally
threaten
to enter self-indulgence but are saved by relaxed wit
and the fact that he swaps his bank manager jacket for a sequined
one
for the
final number.
David Benson's Christmas Party
 First seen in a three-week season in December 2006 at Salisbury Playhouse's 150-seat Salberg Studio, this seasonal show sees David and piano accompanist take their audience on a jolly festive trip through a selection of songs, sketches and character scenes based around Christmas, including a traditional ghost story inspired by Dickens. The show toured in December 2007 to a rapturous response and is available again for the festive season in 2008.
One highlight of the show is an appearance of David's alter ego, Dame Foxy Trot, in full panto regalia. Foxy is followed on stage by rebellious cow Daisy, with the help of some willing audience members. A perfect alternative offering to pantomime; whilst suitable for older children, it has also proved popular with groups of adults such as office outings.
In 2007 the show is available for touring through the Christmas period. You can see more photos and read reviews at David's own site.
David Benson's
home page
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