Little Big Things: Story of mouth artist Henry Fraser heads to the stage

By Steven McIntosh

Entertainment reporter

The true story of an artist who began painting with his mouth after an accident left him paralysed is to be made into a stage musical.

The Little Big Things, based on Henry Fraser’s memoir of the same name, will open in London in September.

Fraser told BBC News he was “incredibly excited and nervous” about the prospect of seeing his story depicted on stage.

The show will star Ed Larkin as Fraser and play for 12 weeks from 2 September at Soho Place.

It will be the first musical to play at the venue, which last year became the first new theatre to open in the West End in five decades.

Fraser will be played in his younger years by Jonny Amies, while Larkin, who is a wheelchair user himself, will portray him following the accident.

Larkin told BBC News it was “an honour to be able to tell this story and be trusted with such a role”.

“To be making my West End debut in a musical as a wheelchair user feels incredible,” he said.

“I haven’t seen wheelchair users in musical theatre in the UK, so I feel honoured to be a part of a cast that is telling this story and pushing the boundaries of what’s expected on a West End stage.”

As a teenager, Henry Fraser was a promising Rugby player who was on the books of Premiership club Saracens.

But a 2009 accident whilst on a post-exam holiday with friends at the age of 17 to celebrate the end of their studies left him paralysed from the neck down.

“On the fifth day, surrounded by incredible friends on a hot beautiful beach, I did something I’d done a hundred times over,” Fraser recalled in an article for Waterstones. “I ran down the beach and into the sea to what I thought was a good depth and dived forward.

“I hit my head on the undulating sea bed and dislocated the fourth vertebrae in my neck, leaving me unable to move anything from my neck down.”

Contemplating a new life as a as a tetraplegic, Fraser said he ultimately came to accept and adapt to his situation, “because until you do this you can’t move on”. In 2015, he began experimenting with his tablet and rediscovered his love of art.

“I found an app on my iPad that I could use for drawing by holding a stylus in my mouth, I loved it! When my health had improved I was able to get out of bed and I taught myself how to draw and paint with pencils and paint by attaching the utensils to a mouth stick.

“Rediscovering my love for art has opened up a thoroughly enjoyable new chapter in my life,” he added. “Adversity has given me a gift.”

As well as becoming an acclaimed mouth artist, Fraser also found began working as a motivational speaker.

In 2017, he published his memoir, which included a foreword written by JK Rowling and became a Sunday Times bestseller.

The stage adaptation of The Little Big Things will be directed by Luke Sheppard, whose production of & Juliet recently transferred to Broadway.

Composer Nick Butcher described the show’s musical score as a “rollercoaster of a ride musically, much like Henry and his family’s emotional journey in the show”.

Fraser told BBC News: “There have been many things that have happened since my accident that I never thought about in life, never planned and really surprised me, in a great way. This musical is one of those moments. The guys have been great to work with and the moment they played me a couple of songs I was sold.”

Soho Place has previously hosted shows including Marvellous and As You Like It and is currently home to the Brokeback Mountain musical.

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