Befitting its subject, the new bio-play about Alexander McQueen is sleek and stylish. Depicting the enfant terrible fashion designer’s life in fast-paced fashion in an assemblage of short scenes, Darrah Cloud’s play has been given a production boasting an elegant visual style of which McQueen would no doubt have approved. Unfortunately, the show proves more interesting to look at than absorb, feeling comprehensive in its treatment but shallow in its effect. If you really want to get the feel of McQueen’s genius, be sure to check out the accompanying well-appointed exhibit featuring his designs.
Housed in a spacious and spiffy, if problematically wide, new performance space extravagantly dubbed The Mansion at Hudson Yards, the play stars Luke Newton as McQueen. Sporting the designer’s buzzcut hairstyle, the Bridgerton hunk (the females crowding the stage door are voluminous) delivers a strong and suitably intense performance. He and Emily Skinner (nearly unrecognizable in a wig and oversized glasses), who plays the mother to whom McQueen was deeply devoted, are the show’s strongest assets.
Well, that’s not entirely true. The production looks gorgeous, with Gary James McQueen, the designer’s artist nephew, billed in the program as “Creative Director.” Boasting lavish video and projection designs by Brad Peterson showcased on massive LED panels, extravagant costumes designed by Kaye Voyce, and a throbbing electronic music score by Andres Martin, it feels less like a theatrical production than a deluxe art installation. Which isn’t entirely inappropriate, considering that the Metropolitan Museum’s McQueen exhibition Savage Beauty was one of the most popular in its history.
[Read Michael Sommers’ ★★☆☆☆ review here.]
Unfortunately, despite the first-class production, House of McQueen never quite comes to dramatic life. The playwright dutifully covers the biographical bases: McQueen’s intensely close relationship with his mum and troubled one with his disapproving father; his obsession with fashion even as a child, starting his career by apprenticing as a tailor when still in his teens (“I wanna be the next Yves St. Laurent,” he boasts); his controversial breakthrough show featuring designs inspired by Jack the Ripper; his conflict-laden stint as chief designer at Givenchy before eventually forming his own company; his mentorship by ill-fated fashion editor Isabella Blow (a terrific Catherine LeFrere); his freewheeling love life; and, of course, his growing drug addiction and depression culminating with his suicide at age 40, just days after his mother’s death. In a too on-the-nose example of foreshadowing, the play begins with McQueen googling questions about suicide methods.
But for all the inherent drama of the designer’s tragically short existence, the play lacks impact. It’s effective, if schematic, at times, as with the scene in which McQueen’s mother interviews him for a BBC broadcast. But more often it feels choppy and confusing in its non-linear storytelling and plethora of characters played by actors performing multiple roles.
The large ensemble handle their versatile chores expertly, and generally look fabulous. And Newton anchors the proceedings with his obviously deeply felt performance in which he makes clear McQueen’s inner demons. “Money isn’t important,” the fashion designer insists early in the play. “All I want to do is fix ugliness.” House of McQueen makes clear, however imperfectly, how he couldn’t fix himself.
House of McQueen opened September 9, 2025, at The Mansion at Hudson Yards and runs through October 19. Tickets and information: thehouseofmcqueen.com
