In what must be London’s most intimate theatre space, the Stage Door Theatre above the pub the Prince of Wales on the corner of Drury Lane and Long Acre, hosts The Tailor-Made Man. Claudio Macor’s play is revived here in a cosy traverse space in a bar with the audience of maybe 40 seated either side of the action.

It’s a story about one of the Hollywood actors in the 1920s who was making the transition from silent movies to talkies but whose story was blighted by his openly being gay.  Artistic Director Robert McWhir has chosen this as his first play in the new venue.  William Haines (Hugo Pilcher) who was born into a poor cigar maker’s family in Virginia had made a career for himself as a heartthrob in the 1920s, having been signed by Samuel Goldwyn as a “New Face” of 1922 along with BeBe Daniels.  In 1924, Samuel Goldwyn Productions were acquired and became Metro, Goldwyn Mayer.

This left Haines in the grips of Louis B Mayer (a shouty Dereck Walker) who was both homophobic and a misogynist, as well as a completely power-crazed film boss.  Apparently LB was known for his shouting. I liked LB’s way of deciding if a script was the right length: by dropping it from a desk and seeing how long it took to land. 

Haines had a long term live in boyfriend Jimmie Shields (Gwithian Evans) who was very tolerant of Haines’ random flings and sexual encounters.  Jimmie would pass his days alone, when Haines was filming, recreating the drawings Haines had made of the Hollywood aristocracy homes and interiors and how he would redesign them.  We meet the major film stars Carole Lombard (Olivia Ruggiero) and Haines’ long term friend Miss Marion Davies (Shelley Rivers) who was William Randolph Hearst’s mistress.