Latest news with #JordanTannahill
Daily Mail
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Play about 'gay' Prince George causes outrage: Off-Broadway show depicts 11-year-old's fictionalised future using drugs and engaging in BDSM - as audiences say it's 'creepy fan-fic'
A new off-Broadway show about Prince George's future as a 'gay' 19-year-old using drugs and engaging in BDSM has sparked outrage - with audiences branding the play 'creepy fan-fic'. Canadian playwright Jordan Tannahill's 'tragicomedy' is a work of speculative fiction that is set in the year 2032 and imagines what would happen if Prince George, currently 11, came out and fell in love with an Oxford educated Indian man. The show opened on May 30 and has proven a surprise hit in New York City, where its sold-out run at the Playwrights Horizon theatre has now been extended. However, Prince F****t has also drawn criticism for its offensive title and graphic depictions of sex and drug use, considering it makes no effort to fictionalise its lead character who is based on a 'real child'. It has also sparked backlash because the play opens with its cast discussing the viral photograph of Prince George excitedly inspecting a military helicopter in Hamburg when he was four. Tannahill's play revisits the discourse around the photograph before propelling its cast members - who play alternate versions of senior Royals including the Prince and Princess of Wales - into a hypothetical future. The highly-speculative show is so explicit that audience members are required to turn their phones off and place them in lockable pouches for the entirety of its 90-minute runtime, as the actors playing George and his 'boyfriend' Dev appear naked and simulate kinky sex on-stage. At one point, reports The Telegraph, George's character (performed by British actor John McCrea) appears in bondage and expresses his sexual fantasy of 'being walked like a puppy'. When one Reddit user asked whether the play would be suitable viewing for their 14-year-old daughter, an audience member who watched Prince F****t shared that it depicts the future King as being 'tied up in ropes hanging from the ceiling and blindfolded for a bondage scene, while his naked boyfriend simulates urinating on him' at one point. The comments were posted under a message praising the 'wonderful play' on the platform's Broadway sub-Reddit, as the user noted it was the 'perfect' release for Pride Month. Noting the cast is made up entirely of queer performers - Princess Catherine is portrayed by transgender actress Rachel Crowl - they wrote: 'Overall, I loved this play, especially as a gay man myself and at the start of Pride month. 'Great show, written very well, with a superb cast that showed their vulnerability openly on stage. I highly recommend it.' However, the post divided opinion in the comments section, as one person admitted the play's premise gave them 'the ick'. 'Interesting concept, really grossed out that the playwright decided to use the basis of the main character on a real person, and one who is a minor no less,' their message read. 'Feels wrong and is giving me the ick.' Several others agreed, with one audience member admitted they felt 'kind of dirty' for watching the show. Multiple Reddit users condemned Tannahill's decision not to change the names of the royals, with one person asking: 'Is it right to essentially write fan fiction about a real child? Tannahill's play has divided audiences, with several people calling the show out for being 'creepy fan-fic' about a 'real child' 'Would it have been so hard to thinly veil the commentary by changing the names?' 'Not just fan fiction, explicit fan fiction where are depicted as being into fetish and do hard drugs,' another added. A third comment read: 'Yeah, this is…not something I feel okay about. He's eleven.' Another person agreed, writing: 'Anything about the sexuality of someone who is a real child is way, way, way, out of bounds to me.' Yet another Reddit user asked: 'Why are we allowing gay kink fantasy plays about a currently eleven year old boy to exist??? This is so creepy.' Others defended the play and it's provocative subject matter, with one viewer noting the point of Tannahill's work was to question 'why we sexualise children in hetero normative ways so even force the hetero narrative' when it's clear they're queer. 'You start talking about queer childhood, they're gonna brand you a groomer,' says two-time Tony nominee K Todd Freeman in the show's opening monologue. The actor plays a reimagined version of George's father, Prince William. Another Reddit user, who also left Playwrights Horizon impressed by the production, added: 'I thought that the opening monologue really worked so well in how it connected that online debate from years back to how so many of us queer people had that experience with our own childhood photos—of seeing a photo of our kid-self and being like "damn, it really was obvious even from that young an age, huh..."' Among the play's fans is Madonna, who attended one of its recent performances at Playwrights Horizon and later shared a photo with the cast on her Instagram Story. Rachel Crowl, who brings Tannahill's Kate Middleton to life, reposted the image on her feed with the caption: 'So, um, Madonna came to the show last night and she just posted this photo she took with us. Amazing. Mind blown. She was lovely!' It's also received glowing reviews from critics, with The New York Times' Jesse Green writing: 'If the playwright means to shock, mission accomplished. 'But here's the real shocker: The thrilling.' The Wrap's critic Robert Hofler described Tannahill's new play as 'meta-theater at its best and most thought-provoking' in his review. However, he noted, it's unlikely the play by the critically-acclaimed writer behind the BBC's gritty drama The Listeners (that is based on his 2021 novel) will get a showing in the UK. In addition to the fictionalised gay storyline involving Prince George and its caricatures of the Prince and Princess of Wales, the play name-checks Meghan Markle and also makes 'pointed references' to Prince Andrew's personal life, The Times reported. When asked by the newspaper whether the production is likely to travel across the Atlantic, a spokesperson declined comment.
Times
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Sex, drugs and S&M: hit play depicts Prince George as grown up and gay
A play that imagines Prince George's future as a gay man has become a sudden off-Broadway hit. With its title — Prince Faggot — and explicit sex scenes, the work may stir outrage, especially among royal insiders who have previously voiced disapproval over Netflix drama The Crown for being 'unfair' and 'untrue'. But in New York City, where the play officially opened on Tuesday, it has generated rave reviews. The New York Times, which declared it a much-prized 'Critic's Pick', called it 'inflammatory, nose-thumbing, explicit to the point of pornography, wild and undisciplined' before ultimately concluding that it 'finds its way to splendour'. And theatre lovers seem to agree: its run at Playwrights Horizons — the off-Broadway theatre that produced Tony Award-winning Stereophonic — is now almost entirely sold out and has already been extended. Scenes within Prince Faggot include explicit sex, sadomasochism, nudity and drug-taking (patrons are required to deposit their cellphones in lockable pouches for the show's duration). The character of Prince George, who in real life is 11 years old, is now 19 in 2032. Written by Jordan Tannahill, who once worked as a fetish sex worker, the story envisages Prince George (John McCrea) falling in love at Oxford with Dev (Mihir Kumar), a handsome British man of South Asian heritage. Their relationship is about to be exposed by the press, and although Prince William (K Todd Freeman) and Kate (Rachel Crowl) are resolutely supportive of their son being gay and out, they're not as positive about his future with Dev. Dev expresses anger over the royal family's historic links to racism, calling himself a 'brown faggot' who will always be seen less favourably than a 'white gay prince'. The play marries humour and drama. A harried palace PR (David Greenspan) tries to manage the news rollout, while Princess Charlotte (N'yomi Allure Stewart) makes snarky comments throughout. Prince Louis, meanwhile, is absent from the show. The play starts with the cast — not in their royal-related character guises — pondering a screen projection of a viral photograph of George, looking fey at the age of three. Dev notes how George was hailed as a 'gay icon' when the photograph was first published. Other cast members say it's dangerous to speculate about young George in this way, especially when gay people are accused of being 'groomers'. Greenspan ends the debate with: 'Frankly, I think we've been doing a terrible job with the grooming. I mean look how many straights there are still.' The two-hour performance is studded with monologues about race, trans identity, sexuality and strength. In imagining what would happen if George turns out to be gay, the play poses a central question that's more subtle than its raucous staging: what does it mean for an LGBT person, future monarch or not, to be absolutely themselves? The play ends not with Prince George, but instead a rousing and deeply personal speech by Stewart, a trans actress, redefining traditional notions of royalty and power. With LGBT rights seeing pushback across the globe — this week, Hungarian police sought to ban Budapest's Pride event — Prince Faggot aims to shock but also to emphasise the importance of LGBT self-determination. Directed by Shayok Misha Chowdhury, the F-word in its title is meant to reclaim the homophobic slur as a badge of pride. The success of the play follows last year's BBC adaptation of Tannahill's second novel, The Listeners. Whether Prince Faggot will be staged as written in Britain, complete with pointed references to William and Prince Andrew's personal lives, remains to be seen. A spokesman for the play declined to say if there were any transatlantic plans, adding that nobody from the show was available for comment. 'They're wanting to let the play speak for itself for now,' the spokesman said.
Telegraph
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The off-Broadway play imagining Prince George as gay
Last Saturday, Prince George cut a dignified figure as he joined the royal family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace for the Trooping the Colour ceremony. But, across the Atlantic, a very different picture is being painted of the future king in a controversial new off-Broadway play with a gasp-inducing title: Prince Faggot. Canadian writer Jordan Tannahill 's highly speculative royal romp, which this week premiered at Playwrights Horizons, is set in 2032 and sees 18-year-old Oxford student Prince George, nicknamed 'Tips' (played by British actor John McCrea), return home to introduce his Indian boyfriend Dev (Mihir Kumar) to the Prince and Princess of Wales (African-American actor K. Todd Freeman and transgender actress Rachel Crowl). Dev is nervous, quipping that George's parents might fear 'We've got another Meghan'; Prince Andrew also gets a name-check in the context of the royal family's fraught history. Tannahill's juicy drama then envisions the tabloid feeding frenzy that follows their relationship going public (including fury from Piers Morgan), and internet comments such as 'Glad someone's adding some spice to that Yorkshire pudding'. Audiences at Prince Faggot must place their phones in lockable Yondr pouches to prevent anyone taking pictures or videos. The reason for that soon becomes apparent: McCrea and Kumar appear naked during graphic sex scenes. They experiment with poppers, acid and S&M fetish: Prince George appears in bondage and shares a kinky fantasy of being walked like a puppy. Prince George also imagines communing with the ghosts of former allegedly gay monarchs: Edward II, Queen Anne, James I, and Richard the Lionheart. Tannahill wraps in postcolonial angst too, with Dev fretting: 'Getting f---ed by the Prince of England? My ancestors would never forgive me.' N'yome Allure Stewart plays a feisty Princess Charlotte (Prince Louis doesn't appear). When her father, concerned about Prince George's explosive fling, says 'Our job is to serve, not to make spectacles of ourselves', she shoots back that they already make a spectacle 'with capes and crowns and motorcades'. Tannahill, an experimental, gay writer, frequently has his 'queer and trans' cast break the fourth wall, refracting their own life experiences through this provocative premise. Stewart talks about earning her version of a royal title at a New York drag ball, and there is discussion around those in power versus marginalised communities. Earnest explorations aside, this is the latest example of a peculiarly pervasive trend: Americans turning our royal family into an explicitly gay soap opera. The jumping-off point for the play is the viral 2017 photograph of the real four-year-old Prince George visiting a military helicopter in Hamburg. The young prince gasped in delight when he spied the chopper and struck a dramatic pose with his hands clasped to his face. Addressing the Prince Faggot audience, actor Mihir Kumar compares the image to a fey photo of himself as a boy, stating: 'We know one of our own when we see one because we ourselves were once queer children.' Internet commentators were certainly gripped by the 'Sassy Prince George' phenomenon. Posts on Twitter (now X) included: 'Prince George is already a bigger gay icon to me than Boy George', 'Do we have our first openly gay royal?', and 'Guys what if Prince George is gay and it causes a constitutional crisis?'. American writer Gary Janetti, who worked on TV shows like Will & Grace and Family Guy, went viral with his spoof Instagram posts imagining Prince George delivering catty zingers to his family – especially Meghan Markle. In one post, 'George' responds to a news story about Meghan doing her make-up in the back of an Uber by sneering 'Does she get dressed in the back of an Uber, too? Because that would explain a lot.' Janetti's work grew so popular that HBO turned it into an animated sitcom called The Prince in 2021, starring Orlando Bloom, Alan Cumming, Sophie Turner and Dan Stevens. Two years later, streamer Amazon Prime Video premiered the film adaptation of non-binary author Casey McQuiston's steamy novel Red, White & Royal Blue, about a gay romance between a closeted British prince and the son of the female President of the United States. Nicholas Galitzine starred as Prince Henry, who bears a physical resemblance to Prince William, but, as the rebellious 'spare' in a contentious relationship, is more obviously inspired by Prince Harry. Perhaps it's the Montecito exile who has turbo-charged this American fascination with royal figures who both benefit from and chafe against their hereditary privilege. Putting a queer spin on our princes allows these writers to indulge in the fantasy of regal luxury – a sort of real-life Disney fairy tale, or a more refined version of their celebrity culture – while also rebelling against it by introducing a transgressive element, and comparing the stuffy Brits unfavourably with the enlightened Americans. In Red, White & Royal Blue, Prince Henry's lover Alex accuses him of being a conformist snob, and the prince eventually confesses that he feels trapped by tradition. Indeed, the disapproving King, Henry's grandfather (played by Stephen Fry), thunders: 'The nation simply will not accept a prince who is homosexual.' In contrast, Uma Thurman's liberal President warmly welcomes her son's coming out, cheerily asking: 'So are you gay? Bi? Fluid? Pan? Queer?', and offering to help him get on the HIV-prevention drug Truvada. Amazon also gifted viewers the bizarre historical fantasy series My Lady Jane in 2024, featuring a gay King Edward VI, plus characters who turn into animals and are 'othered' by society, in another clunky marginalisation metaphor. This trend arguably reached its apotheosis with the horrifically kitsch musical Diana, about the late Princess of Wales, which (dis)graced Broadway in 2021. Although none of the characters were gay, it is unarguably camp trash. Are all of these depictions a grave insult to the institution? Not really. When the material is this navel-gazing, fluffy or downright dumb, it's hard to take it seriously. If anything, it's an odd compliment: a sign that the Americans still can't get enough of our royals, even if they have to view them through a fictionalised, flamboyantly queer modern lens to justify their enduring obsession.
New York Times
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Review: He's Here, He's Queer, He's the Future King of England
In 2032, a young man called Tips brings his boyfriend, Dev, home from college to meet the folks. Though cautious, Mum and Dad are neither surprised nor scandalized; after all, he's 18, and they have known he was gay for a while. For the characters in Jordan Tannahill's 'Prince Faggot,' though, that gayness was long since a given. Early in the play, we are shown a famous picture of Tips at 4, looking adorable and, to them, arguably fey. Tips is better known to the world as Prince George of Wales, the oldest child of Prince William and Princess Catherine. The real Prince George is now 11. For that reason, I will hereafter refer to the character by his nickname. I am one of those who, as the play anticipates, resist the dragooning of a preadolescent boy into a dramatic argument about sexuality and monarchy — just as I cringe at the use of a slur I take no reclaimed pride in to market a title. If the playwright means to shock, mission accomplished. But here's the real shocker: The play, which opened Tuesday at Playwrights Horizons, in a co-production with Soho Rep, is thrilling. Inflammatory, nose-thumbing, explicit to the point of pornography, wild and undisciplined (except in its bondage scenes) — yes, all that. Its arguments have so many holes in them, most hold water only briefly. Grievance is its top note: Tips is a whiner and Dev a theory queen. Love is everything and never enough. In other words, however objectionably conjectural, it's real. Tannahill tries to sideline reality quickly though. In a throat-clearing prologue, he has the six actors (all exceptionally good in multiple roles) debate the propriety of telling the story in the first place. One (Mihir Kumar) argues that since 'all children are 'sexualized' as heterosexual by default,' exploring a different framing is a kind of reparation. Another (K. Todd Freeman) retorts that to portray an actual child as queer is to invite a charge of grooming. A third (David Greenspan) adds wickedly, 'Frankly, I think we've been doing a terrible job at grooming. I mean look at how many straights there still are.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Globe and Mail
31-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Globe and Mail
Canadian playwrights Hannah Moscovitch and Jordan Tannahill stay true to their roots despite U.S. success
Want to get a coffee with Canadian playwrights Hannah Moscovitch and Jordan Tannahill? Good luck. Both writers are, to say the least, a little busy. Moscovitch's play Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes runs until June 18 on Broadway – starring Hugh Jackman, no less. She's also a writer and executive producer on AMC's Interview with the Vampire. Her play Red Like Fruit is playing in Toronto now as part of Luminato Festival, and travels to the Edinburgh Fringe later this summer. And Sophia's Forest, the opera for which Moscovitch, 46, wrote the libretto, is in the midst of a four-day run with City Opera Vancouver. She also has a film in the works, a psychological thriller called Child's Play set to star Sandra Oh. Tannahill, 37, has a ton on the go, too: His play Prince Faggot is now in previews and will run until July 6 off-Broadway. (His friend and mentor, fellow audacious playwright Jeremy O. Harris, is a producer on the show.) He has a film in the pipeline, as well – a medieval horror flick called Rapture, set to star Will Poulter, Kit Connor and Manu Ríos. In addition to stacked Google calendars, the pair have other things in common, too: Both had childhoods in suburban Ottawa, and both found early success as playwrights in Toronto. The Globe and Mail facilitated a Zoom chat between the writers on a rare day off from rehearsals and writing. Hannah Moscovitch (HM): Jordan, why did you want to expand your artistic practice beyond playwriting? I feel like you've always been curious about other mediums. Jordan Tannahill (JT): That was one of the great gifts of growing up in a city like Toronto, which is perhaps less driven by capitalism than London or New York. There was room to follow my curiosity – I felt really flexible in that way. But, Hannah, the craft and intelligence of your stage work – I'm excited to see you bring that into the TV and film space. Has that been satisfying? HM: Working in U.S. television is so satisfying. The people I work with are astonishingly good. Once you can pull internationally because you have those American dollars, what you can make is just so extraordinary. I came up through Canada, where you hone your abilities and then by the time the Americans or Brits notice you, you've already got everything figured out – when I ended up on Interview with the Vampire, they were like, 'Oh, we got a really good deal.' And I've learned so much from working with [Interview with the Vampire showrunner] Rolin Jones. He holds himself to such high standards. In the writers' room, he's told us to go away and write a scene that's better than Breaking Bad. JT: Wow. At Cannes, a reckoning with an impossible mission Canadian playwright Hannah Moscovitch is drawn to the dark side – and Hollywood Jordan, do you remember when you and Hannah met? JT: I remember I was a fan before I met you, Hannah. I was aware of your work and had seen it – but I got to work with [Christian Barry, husband to Moscovitch and co-founder of 2b Theatre] on my very first play. HM: Which was gorgeous, by the way. You were so obviously so good in that, Jordan. I came up quite quickly – everyone got to watch my failures. JT: [Laughing] I don't remember you having failures, Hannah. HM: But you were so fully formed so quickly. You were so good, and such a peer, immediately. JT: I don't feel that way at all, but that's very generous. I sort of feel the inverse way to you, actually – I got to teach myself publicly how to make theatre. There were so many opportunities for young creators, development programs and festivals. I owe such a debt to those initiatives, those artists who mentored me. I saw Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes last week, by the way, and I loved it. It was one of the strongest things I've seen so far in the spring, and I think it's so exciting to see a Canadian work take its place amongst a very strong season of Tony Award contenders. HM: Thank you. I made changes for this production from the version that premiered at Tarragon in 2020, but they were minimal. I had never workshopped it before. So we spent a lot of time trying to make sure it would work in an American context – I feel like I'm saying terrible things. I'm admitting that American contexts are different from Canadian ones. And are they? Do you feel like you've changed how you think about your work since leaving Canada? HM: Yeah. I wonder often, now, how honest I want to be. I'm constantly being told by my American colleagues, 'I don't know what the hell you're trying to say, but just say it.' They're always mad that I'm trying to do things carefully. JT: I'd argue, too, that neither of us have really left Canada – Hannah, in your case, you're very much still a Halifax-based artist. I think we've always had artists whose trajectories will be international. That's a healthy thing to happen within a national arts ecosystem – I know that I still consider myself a Canadian artist, developing work in Canada. HM: Me too. JT: Sometimes you're fortunate enough to begin working internationally, and hopefully, your work will take you out of the country at different times. But it's a dialogue – and I feel very much still part of the conversation in Canada. HM: Agreed. It was never my desire to leave – I was living in Nova Scotia and then started to work in American television, mostly because people there had found my plays and then started to ask me to join them. But there's been some revelation for me in leaving, which I wasn't necessarily expecting. Both Canada as a country and theatre as a medium are marginal – to be outside of that for a little while, to be part of a larger conversation that is more central, has its appeal. I have things I want to say that are important to me, and I want to be able to say them in a broad context. That doesn't mean I don't love theatre or appreciate its liveness. I do. But I don't see any reason why I can't do both. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
