How to Win Against History

Tour synopsis, cast & creatives

Based on the charred remains of a true story. The 5th Marquis of Anglesey was one of the wealthiest men who ever lived. He burned brightly, briefly and transvestitely at the end of the 19th Century, blowing his family's colossal fortune on diamond frocks, lilac-dyed poodles, putting on amazing plays to which nobody came, touring Germany performing the inexplicable "Famous Electric Butterfly Dance", and generally desperately trying to make himself a legend. After he died at 29, his family, in vengeance, burned every proof they could find that he existed, and carried on as though he never was. How to Win Against History is a hilarious, ripped-up musical about expectations, manliness, disappointment and being totally fabulous: Hedwig and the Angry Inch meets Noises Off in a ballgown. A frothy, glossy costume drama about the stories we tell to convince ourselves it's all going well, and the moments we realise it's not.