John McCrea (left) plays Prince George of England and Mihir Kumar is his lover—for awhile—in Jordan Tannahill’s Prince Faggot.
Jordan Tannahill’s drama Prince Faggot, a love story about a gay heir to the British throne and his boyfriend, is admirably multifaceted: part fantasia, part social and political commentary, part agitprop. At heart, though, Prince Faggot is a bittersweet romance about a royal and a commoner, a sort of Roman Holiday for the 21st century—if Audrey Hepburn’s princess had become a devotee of drug-assisted intercourse and Japanese rope bondage.
The troupe of six actors opens the show stepping to the forestage as themselves. The lead is Mihir Kumar, who identifies gay attributes of himself in a projected photo, taken when he was 4: “This photo felt like some kind of proof that, as a 4-year-old, I was not a queer man in waiting. I was a queer child. I was queer in the present tense.” But that’s followed by a picture of Prince George of Britain, “gazing with limpid amazement at an ascending helicopter,” Kumar notes. “I remember literally hundreds of people on social media sharing this photo and calling George a ‘gay icon’ for his adorably fey pose.”
N’yomi Allure Stewart (left) plays Princess Charlotte to McCrea’s Prince George. Photographs by Marc J. Franklin.
The post brought a hot comment from a connection named Kendra: “Sexualizing a young child like that is disgusting.” And Kumar responds to her:
Can you not see how all children are “sexualized” as heterosexual by default? My papa, my grandfather used to ask me when I was 3 and 4 if I had a girlfriend yet.
Suddenly the troupe rises to begin the play proper, set in 2032. Charles is still king. George (John McCrea), out to his parents, wants to introduce his boyfriend Dev (Kumar) to them. The barriers to their happiness are not only class, but color, sex, power, and domination, often swirled together.
Charting the romance from private to public over several years, Tannahill draws on many sources and styles: from breaking the fourth wall, to rom-com, to sensationalist scenes of “in yer face” theater. He even includes a Shakespearean assembly of ancestral gay ghosts.
“David Greenspan is hilarious as Jacqueline, a controlling communications director with cut-glass diction.”
Kumar, brimming with charm, is superb as a strapping romantic hero—it’s Dev, not George—as he moves from naïveté to rebellion while George loses himself in drugs and orgies. But Dev struggles with his own historical baggage. “You don’t get to colonize three quarters of the world, brutally subjugate millions of people, and then get to ponce around with a crown a century later and pretend we forgive,” he tells George. “We don’t.”
Director Shayok Misha Chowdhury has cast the piece expansively. Black actor K. Todd Freeman is a gruff but loving Prince William, and trans actor Rachel Crowl is a slightly warmer Princess Kate. Their loyal butler Farmer (David Greenspan) evokes John Gielgud’s manservant in Arthur—he provides a sympathetic shoulder for George—and trans performer N’yomi Allue Stewart is an outspoken Princess Charlotte. As for Prince Louis, in one of the riper comic moments someone asks, meta-theatrically, “Where the hell is Louis in this play?” The answer is “Who cares?”
There are standout moments from everyone: Greenspan, dressed in an eye-straining white pantsuit and gold jewelry (by Montana Levi Blanco) and wearing a white Louise Brooks wig (by Cookie Jordan), is hilarious as Jacqueline, a controlling communications director with cut-glass diction. Crowl has a moving monologue as “herself” (only two monologues incorporate elements of the real performers’ lives) commenting on a scene between the naked lovers:
When I first saw that scene in rehearsal, I felt this—anger … this overwhelming feeling of having been denied the experience of being a trans girl … and having just a normal first kiss, first crush, first romance.
Among the roles played by David Greenspan is the ghost of the 14th-century gay king Edward II, the subject of a play by Christopher Marlowe.
Scenic designer David Zinn has opened up the depth of the stage at the Peter J. Sharp Theater to the back wall. A raised platform serves as a drawing room, with a black-and-white parquet perimeter and two huge crystal chandeliers.
Such an ambitious play inevitably has flaws. When George claims that his father has mistresses who like to sexually dominate him, it comes off as grotesque mudslinging. And given the way his grandfather and father have treated Prince Harry, it shows George as incredibly reckless and stupid.
Far less important, though jarring, is a moment when Dev first meets William and Kate. He is offered a drink. He says, “Wine.” He doesn’t specify red or white, and neither of the supposedly well-bred parents asks which he’d prefer. Also, Tannahill’s references to Holly Blakey, Audre Lorde and Virginia Woolf’s The Waves feel like showing off for the cognoscenti.
But those are quibbles in a play so rich and engaging. By turns funny, sad, sweet, and daring, Prince Faggot is a provocative theatrical experience.
The Playwrights Horizons and Soho Rep co-production of Prince Faggot runs through July 13 at Playwrights Horizons (416 West 42nd St.). Evening performances are at 7 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday; matinees are at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For tickets and more information, visit playwrightshorizons.org.
Playwright: Jordan Tannahill
Director: Shayok Misha Chowdhury
Scenic Design: David Zinn
Costume Design: Montana Levi Blanco
Lighting Design: Isabella Byrd
Sound Design & Original Music: Lee Kinney
Wig & Hair Design: Cookie Jordan
