Diminutive American actor Leslie Jordan, best known for his Emmy Award-winning role in sitcom Will And Grace, is to bring his autobiographical one-man show My Trip Down The Pink Carpet to London’s Apollo theatre in February 2011.
Already a hit on the far side of the Atlantic, My Trip Down The Pink Carpet is billed as “part autobiography and part Hollywood tell-all” as it features both the trials and tribulations of Jordan’s life – drug and alcohol dependency, growing up gay in Bible-belt America – and anecdotes featuring stars as diverse as Boy George, Joan Collins and George Clooney.
The barely five-foot tall Jordan has a host of TV credits to his name, including Boston Legal, Ally McBeal, Monk, cult classic Sordid Lives and the hugely popular Will And Grace. Despite a successful performing career, the London engagement of My Trip Down The Pink Carpet will mark his first significant trip to the capital. “I’ve been in a situation comedy studio for 30 years,” he told Official London Theatre, explaining his absence, “I’ve been working. But I think this is the perfect age to be here; I would have gotten in a lot of trouble years ago.”
Speaking at a suitably pink launch event, where guests drank pink champagne and nibbled smoked salmon bagels, Jordan said that though he may be better known by Americans he is excited about bringing his show to British audiences: “My brand of humour, which is Southern, is very similar to what I think of as English humour. I don’t laugh at all at American television, but you can put on Are You Being Served? or you can put on Fawlty Towers and I’m screeching.”
Exact dates for My Trip Down The Pink Carpet are yet to be confirmed, while no comment has been made about the future of The Country Girl, currently booking at the Apollo theatre until 26 February.
MA