Gary Wilmot MBE - The Recs

Gary Wilmot has deservedly become a British entertainment legend, having worked for over 40 years in TV, film, and theatre. Now, he’s adding another first to his extensive career with his London playwriting debut at the award-winning Off West End venue Upstairs at the Gatehouse in late February 2026.

The Recs’ editor Steve Coats-Dennis chatted to Gary ahead of the premiere of While They Were Waiting.

SCD: Thank you for taking the time to chat with us, Gary. Our readers will know you best as an actor, an entertainer, an outstanding musical theatre performer and a pantomime legend. But I think, with your upcoming play, While They Were Waiting, people may be surprised that you are adding another string to your bow.

GW: Some people may very well be surprised. Those that know me would just see it as what I do. I have always written. When I first started in the clubs doing what was then called cabaret, I used to write pretty much everything I ever did. There is a difference, I find, between the part of my brain I use for writing and a different part of the brain for learning words. When I approach a script I have created from an actor’s point of view, I find it’s just as difficult to learn the words. I often find myself saying, “Who wrote this rubbish?”

SCD: I believe inspiration for the play came from sharing a dressing room with Steve Furst at the National Theatre in 2019 for Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear the Musical! I’m sure you’ve shared many dressing rooms over your long career, but what was it about this experience that struck you that it would make a good play?

GW: When I get an idea that I think is a good one, it stays with me until I do something about it. As an actor we do a lot of waiting. What interested and inspired me is what people do when they are waiting. So I explored and came up with this play.

When I approach a script I have created from an actor’s point of view, I find it’s just as difficult to learn the words. I often find myself saying, "Who wrote this rubbish?"

- Gary Wilmot MBE

SCD: Seeing it described as comedic, absurdist and at times surreal, it brings to mind that famous play about two men waiting, Beckett’s Waiting For Godot. Has that influenced your piece at all?

GW: I had never seen Beckett’s Waiting For Godot, so the idea that I would be influenced by it just wasn’t there. I started with just two men waiting and took it from there. Once my work was complete, I did venture into the Theatre Royal Haymarket for a matinee of Godot with Lucian Msamati and Ben Whishaw and was pleased to see that the theme of ‘waiting’ was where the comparison stopped.

SCD: As an actor, I wonder, does writing dialogue come easily to you?

GW: When you find writing fun, it comes very easy. It’s the bits that aren’t fun that are difficult. Writing this with Steve Furst in mind, as I did with While They Were Waiting for the role of Mulberry, the writing was not so difficult. He can make anything work.

SCD: Both you and Steve Furst are to play the characters Mulberry and Bix. How much of who you are in real life and your respective traits have you written into these characters – or is it purely a flight of fancy?

GW: I find that any character I play has to be an extension of my own feeling and imagination. If an audience is ever going to understand and have empathy with a character, the performance has to come from the heart of the actor.

SCD: While They Were Waiting is your London playwriting debut, but I believe that your debut play came in 2018 with Sweet Lorraine and a subsequent work, Horse. What did you learn from these initial playwriting outings?

GW: I found that the more one writes the better one gets. It’s experiencing theatre that tells you the do’s and don’t of writing. I’m hoping for this to be successful of course but I also recognise that even the best and most experienced of writers have had their flops.

SCD: What are you hoping audiences get from While They Were Waiting?

GW: I hoping they have a great and memorable night in the theatre. We will all be working hard to make sure that happens.

SCD: And lastly, a question that we may well ask all of our playwrights: What is the greatest play ever written? (And why?)

GW: All plays are good because all plays provide us with a talking point. We pedal memories and if we do our job properly audiences will remember a great night in the theatre and maybe come back for more.