‘Duke & Roya' Review: He's Got Swagger, She's No-Nonsense

New York Times

25-06-2025

With an American behaving brashly at an overseas military base, getting locals into trouble and considering consequences only later, 'Duke & Roya' feels like scarcely more than a retooling of 'Madama Butterfly.' Like that old problematic chestnut, Charles Randolph-Wright's new play is not without its pleasures, but lacking soaring melodrama, it's hard to believe in its music.
Here, the visiting Westerner is Duke (Jay Ellis), a hip-hop star at the height of his fame. In a present-day press interview, he recalls his visit to Afghanistan in 2016, during the country's U.S. occupation, to perform for troops at a large air base near Kabul. The play, which opened Tuesday at the Lucille Lortel Theater, then flashes back to his arrival and his immediate attraction to his Afghan interpreter, Roya (Stephanie Nur).
She's a no-nonsense type, and he's always on vacation mode. But Roya, who works for a women's education organization, has done her research, and knows that the party boy, born to British and American diplomats, was once a bookish English major. His quoting Rumi and James Baldwin impresses her, and Duke appreciates how she challenges him.
It's the standard romance of a down-to-earth civilian who grounds a starry hot shot, and Ellis and Nur lend it enjoyable chemistry.
Charm comes naturally to Ellis, a classic romantic lead in the HBO series 'Insecure' who makes an amiable stage debut here. His swaggering Duke teases out the word 'serendipitous' with the cascading, sweet-talking drawl of a Southern rapper, and he adeptly handles a few verses (penned by Ronvé O'Daniel). Nur finds appealing spaces for wit and agency in her more reserved, reactive role.
But does the play know there's a war on?
Despite an opening scene of martial seriousness, Randolph-Wright treats Afghanistan like a Harlequin romance playground. When the two sneak out of the base for Duke to buy a piece of lapis lazuli, they're thrown into unsurprising peril. Danger! Excitement! Two worlds collide!
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