By Matthew Wexler
UPDATE: Prince Faggot has transferred from Playwrights Horizons to Studio Seaview for an extended run through November 9.
In 2017, a photo of four-year-old Prince George went viral. The heir to the throne looked—as some suggested—gay! The image of the boy’s cocked head, grin, and slightly limp wrist reverberated throughout the tabloids. Some were horrified at the accusation. Others couldn’t care less. Playwright Jordan Tannahill used it as a springboard for the brilliantly conceived Prince Faggot.
Tannahill’s meta-theatrical world includes six performers who step in and out of the British monarchy to address the audience as themselves, or so we think. The cultural commentary frames the story within a story, which imagines George as gay (yas gurl!) while navigating a new boyfriend, the demands of his very public life, and some fetishes that might make some blush.
An Off-Broadway co-production between Playwrights Horizons and Soho Rep, Prince Faggot benefits from David Zinn’s smartly conceived, bisected scenic design, including a voyeuristic view into the actor’s dressing rooms. UnkleDave’s Fight-house also has its hands full (no pun intended) with graphic but tastefully staged intimacy sequences.
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Prince Faggot is for grown-ups, and not just because of the full-frontal. Tannahill dismantles and pieces back together our ideas on sexuality, race, privilege, and culture in a way that asks us to question our belief systems and how they came to be. An exquisite LGBTQ+ company, including Mihir Kumar, K. Todd Freeman, Rachel Crowl, N’yomi Allure Stewart, David Greenspan, and John McCrea, is deceptively delightful under Shayok Misha Chowdhury’s direction. Collectively, they reveal the harsh reality of our centuries-old tradition of marginalization.
“There are some kinds of queerness that will never really be allowed in through the front door,” George’s ex-boyfriend explains to the future king amid a torrential London downpour. Substitute “queer” for Black or trans and Tannahill’s words hit that much harder. Except, as Prince Faggot proves, for one significant detail: the doors of creative expression—particularly in live theater—can never really be locked.
Prince Faggot plays Off-Broadway at Studio Seaview through December 13.
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‘Prince Faggot’ takeaway
If you’re looking for a more light-hearted take on royal queerness, Casey McQuiston’s Red, White & Royal Blue is the perfect summer read and will allow your imagination to conjure the budding relationship between a fictional Prince Henry and the U.S. president’s son, Alex Claremont-Diaz. Those with less imagination can watch the Prime Video film adaptation.
