Episode 1: Future Princes & Ancient Kings

2025 has been a tough year for the arts in America, New York theater however is having a banner year. The past Broadway season was the most lucrative in history, grossing $1.9bn thanks to plays starring George Clooney and Denzel Washington. Off-Broadway and smaller theaters have not fared as well, with NYC rents and overall inflation hitting them harder. So far, none of the smaller companies have shut their doors for good, but many are struggling and shifting their strategies. One of Manhattan’s boldest companies, Soho Rep, recently lost its space on Walker Street but teamed up this summer with Playwrights Horizons to produce the provocatively titled play “Prince Faggot.”

This world premiere play is a queer fantasia, imagining a future where Prince George (currently age 12,) might become the first openly gay King of England. Written by Canadian author, Jordan Tannahill, “Prince Faggot” is directed by Shayok Misha Chowdhury, who was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama last year for his SoHo Rep production of Public Obscenities. The provocative title and concept are one reason that “Prince Faggot,” has become a hit. The run quickly sold out and at the performance I attended people had queued up hours before curtain in the hopes of snagging a returned ticket. But some of this is also because the show features some intense, full frontal gay sex scenes - so much so that ushers insist on taking your phones and putting them in locked bags for the duration of the show.

This titillation may be why it's a smash hit, but the reason the play is worth seeing is the first-rate cast of actors. British actor John McCrea, who was charming in the West End musical “Everyone’s talking about Jamie,” is beautifully deluded as Prince George. Downtown fixture David Greenspan is spot on in two roles: Farmer, a gay butler and Jaqueline, the PR Maven for the Royal Family. But the real star is K. Todd Freeman. The actor, who showed such range in his last two roles, a city bureaucrat in “The Minutes” on Broadway, and a registered sex offender in “Downstate” (also at Playwrights Horizons) digs even deeper here, somehow making Prince William feel like a caring father and sympathetic human being.

Tannahill and Chowdhury have concocted a hip, smart take on gender politics in 2025 with this play, and it will likely rack up awards and future productions around the globe. For those who didn’t snag a seat early, I’ve heard that the play is going to transfer to another Off-Broadway theater to be announced soon. This, plus the excellent cast and the people waiting in line for tickets proves that New York, despite impossible economics for artists these days, still draws the most talented performers - and has a hungry audience eager to see them on stage.

This was also the case at City Island a few nights earlier, where Chowdhury—clearly the “it” director this season off-Broadway—had another show open last month. This one titled “Gospel at Colonus.” If “Prince Faggot,” is an attempt to write Shakespeare history play in our near, queer future; “Gospel at Colonus” sets the Greek tragedy of “Oedipus” in a Pentacostal liturgy. It was written by the late Lee Breuer, one of the founders of the fabled downtown theater troupe Mabou Mines.

That was a clip from a PBS broadcast of the original staging back in 1985, featuring resplendent Reagan-era costumes and sets, and yes that was a young Morgan Freeman as the Messenger. Here at Little Island, Chowdhury wisely presents the action in a timeless, minimal fashion. It puts the music center stage and helps you ignore the clunky adaptation of Sophocles. Many of the spoken bits felt disconnected from the music or the bigger themes, but a work like this reminds us that theater is not about just seeing masterpieces, it's a process – a secular ritual. “Gospel at Colonus” may not click along perfectly, like say a hip hop musical about the first Treasury secretary, but its instincts to push American theater in a new direction are right on. This passionately sung revival by Chowdhury manages to make both a 40-year-old musical and at 2500-year-old Greek tragedy feel not only new, but now.