Off-B'way Review: Prince Faggot

John McCrea and Mihir Kumar in
Prince Faggot.
Credit: Marc J. Franklin

When Prince Harry of England married Meghan Markle, an African-American actress, in 2018, I was teaching high school. On the Monday morning after their royal wedding, I was sitting in the faculty lounge with a colleague, an older white woman. When I asked her what she thought of the monumental nuptials, she responded with anger and dismay over the presence of an African-American minister and a black gospel choir. I opined that it was Meghan’s wedding and she could have whatever or whoever she wanted there; the minister and the choir were reflecting her culture. My fellow educator just bristled with indignation that if it were Harry’s brother’s wedding, such a transgression would never be tolerated by his grandmother the Queen. I later realized that my co-worker was really fuming over the intrusion of black identity onto her lily-white ideal of the British royal family. 

N'yomi Allure Stewart and John McCrea
in Prince Faggot.
Credit: Marc J. Franklin

Jordan Tannahill goes several steps further with his imaginative and riveting fantasy Prince Faggot, now in a co-production from Playwrights Horizons and Soho Rep in PH’s intimate Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Starting off from the infamous photo of toddler Prince George striking what could be interpreted as a fey pose, Tannahill imagines a future where George has grown up to become the first (openly) gay heir to the throne. To add to the drama, his boyfriend and potential spouse Dev is a Brit of Indian descent with radical views on the monarchy. The provocative plot (and the even more provocative title) are used to explore what happens when racial, sexual, and gender barriers fall and queerness and otherness in general intrude onto traditionally majority-only spaces. My co-worker would have probably run screaming from the theater. The sex and language are explicit and realistic. Kudos to UnkleDave’s Fight-House, who usually coordinate onstage battles, but here are listed as intimacy coordinators and are responsible for a different kind of contact.

Tannahill adds another layer of meaning by having the cast of six—four gay men and two transgender women—directly address the audience as versions of themselves and explaining how the issues raised by the play have impacted them. In a program note, the author clarifies that two of monologues are based on the actors’ actual experience and the rest are fictional. 

NY Drama Critics Circle Awards: Fast and Funny at 54 Below

Shalita Grant and Sigourney Weaver of
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at
the NY Drama Critics Circle Awards

The New York Drama Critics Circle Awards are usually held in a crowded bar with all the honorees, critics, friends, and cast members standing up and pushed up against each other as if they were in the subway. This year, the ceremony, held on Mon. May 13, was moved to the more spacious 54 Below cabaret room. Critics mingled with actors, playwrights, directors, producers, and press agents and there was no bloodshed.

The Circle was founded in 1935 in reaction to the press's dissatisfaction with choices made by the Pulitzer Prize committee and gives awards for the Best Play, Best American or Foreign Play (depending on the nationality of the Best Play choice), Best Musical, and whatever special citations the members choose for that season. I've been a voting member for many years and this was probably the most entertaining and fun Circle presentation in recent memory. Before the ceremony started I found myself chatting with Sigourney Weaver and Linda Winer of Newsday on the mating habits of gorillas and lions. We were talking about Weaver's role in Gorillas in the Mist; I mentioned I had been in Namibia and one of the attractions at the lodge where I stayed was watching a pride of lions at feeding time. The pride consisted of one male and eight females one of whom was in heat. The male mated with her three times during the course of the meal. "How long did each encounter take?," Linda asked. "About 30 seconds," I answered. Sigourney confirmed that it was about the same for gorillas.

Peter Bartlett and Harriet Harris
of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella
hosting the NY Drama Critics Circle Awards