'House of McQueen' Off-Broadway review — Luke Newton-led play puts style over substance
Read our review of House of McQueen off Broadway, a new drama starring Bridgerton's Luke Newton as the late British fashion designer Lee Alexander McQueen.
Lee Alexander McQueen (Luke Newton) stalks back and forth backstage at his first fashion show, “Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims,” barking directions at his models: “Stumble! You’ve been attacked, you’ve been slashed, you’re dyin’. Bleed, bleed!” In this scene from the new play House of McQueen, and others in which the designer fashions his walking mannequins like actors, the ensemble struts on stage, lines up, and stands facing the audience, blank-faced. Archival clips from McQueen's actual shows flash on a screen for mere seconds, a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it chance to savor McQueen’s dramatic instincts.
The directorial vision of the working-class tailor-turned-couture provocateur is basically absent from the show, leaving the audience to imagine a clearer picture of not only what McQueen's clothes looked like, but how they were part of an ambitious point of view that epitomized what the late designer did best: sew fashion, nightmare, fantasy, and theatre together. McQueen was once called fashion’s “closest thing to a rockstar,” but House of McQueen, written by Darrah Cloud and directed by Sam Helfrich, relegates one of the most theatrical fashion designers of all time to surface-level banality.
House of McQueen remixes McQueen’s life in nonlinear fashion that's more convoluted than chic, with several framing devices to explore his rise and fall. There’s a BBC interview with his mother, Joyce (Emily Skinner); press coverage delivered by a recurring reporter (Margaret Odette); McQueen's unofficial wedding ceremony; and, perhaps indelicately executed, his own suicidal ideations. The show begins with the giant screen displaying online search queries about various suicide methods, while the designer, in baggy jeans and shirt, picking up a sword, a gun, a bottle, and pills resting on grey rectangular platforms that rise and fall throughout the show.
The various frames are seemingly intended to be like nesting dolls, housed within each other to suggest the ways McQueen was caged by mental and emotional turmoil brought on by abuse, addiction, fame, loneliness, and the fashion industry. Instead, they are disjointed, leading to the tedious repetition of ideas that reveal little insight about McQueen, his work, or the worlds he created on the runway.
There appears to be a mistrust of the audience's ability to go into McQueen’s gothic universe. Nearly every scene is intruded upon by Brad Peterson's garish projections, which, like the script, handhold theatregoers through a basic plot about McQueen being pulled between art and commerce. The designer repeats lines like “I’m a tailor, not a fighter,” “I want everything, everything, everything,” and “I just want to make art!”
With few exceptions — moments between McQueen and his muse/confidante/possible parasite Isabella Blow (Catherine LeFrere) bring out much needed humor in the script — the play trips over itself to tell audiences about McQueen and his fascinations, but it does little to show them through gesture or non-projection design. Scenes where McQueen is dressing someone, like his sister Janet (Jonina Thorsteinsdottir) or his mother or Isabella, imply a richer play about creating art and the intense chaos of being confined by an industry that dismisses you while circling around your work like vultures. But, unfortunately, House of McQueen is mostly a house of cards.
House of McQueen summary
Beginning at the tragic end of fashion designer and innovator Alexander McQueen’s life, House of McQueen takes audiences through his memories: of his working-class upbringing in Lewisham, London, where he struggled to make his parents proud; his early collections; the founding of his own fashion house; and his relationships with his patron Isabella Blow, his mother, and his sister.
What to expect at House of McQueen
There are a few recreations of McQueen’s garments (by costume designer Kaye Voyce) in the show: a medieval-chic chainmail look from his "Joan" show, an asylum inmate-inspired outfit with feathers on the bodice from "Voss." But the best part of House of McQueen is undoubtedly the mini-exhibition at the venue, featuring about a dozen of the designer’s most captivating and iconic artifacts, including his notorious “bumster” pants. The show itself plays out across a blank white stage with rectangular platforms that rise from the ground, with production design by Jason Ardizzone-West and lighting by Robert Wierzel.
What audiences are saying about House of McQueen
- “While the acting was fine, the music and the visuals excellent, the story did not make me feel anything for McQueen. It bounces around from his childhood to his success to his downfall without a real texture of the man.” - Show-Score user Patrick M 4
- “A rapid fire (but sluggish) look at the rise & demise of fashion designer/provocateur Alexander McQueen. Newton captures the artist's raging flamboyance & insecurity very well. The bio-drama has a paint by numbers feel.” - Show-Score user Richard 129440
- “I went in knowing nothing about Alexander McQueen, hoping to learn and be inspired. Instead, I found myself reading his Wikipedia page afterward - and honestly, that was far more engaging and insightful than whatever was on stage.” - Reddit user Techincal-Wallaby-69
- “House of McQueen is just in a significantly better place than it was that first preview. The company has clearly invested a lot of time and effort into it and made a lot of improvements. With all theatre, some aspects of it just are what they are.” - X user @theotricality
Read more audience reviews of House of McQueen on Show-Score.
Who should see House of McQueen
- Fans of Bridgerton’s Luke Newton will find the actor is a dead ringer for McQueen and gives the character a mix of swagger and anxiety.
- Cather LeFrere gives an excellent performance as Isabella Blow, giving the script’s bizarre take on McQueen’s intimate friend (it borderline posits her as a toxic influence on him) a sense of nuance and tragedy.
- Fans of Alexander McQueen the designer will undoubtedly be curious and have lots to talk about regarding the show’s take on his life and work.
Learn more about House of McQueen off Broadway
McQueen’s spectacular visions of brutality and beauty sent quakes through the fashion world, turning every piece and runway show into spectacle and theatre. Disappointingly, House of McQueen renders all that theatricality and extravagance, pain and terror, thrill and feverishness into a show that feels like a knockoff bag on Canal Street.
Photo credit: House of McQueen off Broadway. (Photos by Thomas Hodges)
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