Meet the forgotten Marquis

A riches-to-rags story becomes a hilarious, ripped-up musical in the utterly fabulous, award-winning How To Win Against History. NATALIE BANYARD talks to the show's creator and performer, Seiriol Davies

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HOW To Win Against History is the cautionary tale of Henry Cyril Paget, one of the world’s wealthiest men, who lost his fortune by being too darn fabulous.

The glorious show was the solid gold, diamante-studded hit of Edinburgh Fringe 2016, widely acclaimed by critics as a work of genius and winning ‘the Stage Edinburgh Award. Now, this riches-to-rags cabaret is back, bigger and more sparkly than ever for 2025, marking the 150th anniversary of Paget's birth.

Penned by award-winning writer, composer, songwriter and performer Seiriol Davies, the fabulous threehander musical is being restaged by the Olivier Award-winning producers of Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder!, Fleabag and Baby Reindeer, at Bristol Old Vic, where it will premiere from next Thursday (June 19) to July 12.

The show follows the short but spectacular life of Henry Cyril Paget, the 5th Marquis of Anglesey, who blew his family’s colossal fortune on diamond frocks, lilac-dyed poodles and putting on simply amazing plays - to which nobody came causing a very Edwardian scandal.

His fabulous flame burned brightly, briefly and extremely cross-dressingly, until he died at just 29, after which his outraged family destroyed every record of him ever having existed. Now Henry’s back, with nothing to his name but savage wit, belting bangers and a metric ton of sparkle!

This fierce and tragi-gorgeous comedy musical is a true story about expectations, masculinity, privilege and failure on an epic scale. It’s about feeling desperately weird and alone but knowing that to fit in would cost you everything.

The flamboyant show’s catalyst goes way back to a pre-adolescent boy’s righteous outrage about someone being completely wiped from history.