Saw this play over the weekend and was actually incredibly impressed by how ambitious and audacious it is. It tries to tackle more issues than it has space for and I'm not sure it entirely sticks the landing, but there was some really interesting and thought-provoking stuff in there, I found it far more worthwhile than a handful of other things I've seen on Broadway this season.
Pretty expertly performed, especially by John McCrea and Rachel Crowl, and requiring a lot of these actors to bare a lot of themselves for the audience, and not just their naked bodies. There is a fearlessness and a sort of reckless abandon to the whole thing I found incredibly invigorating and exciting to watch.
Yes, it treads some similar ground as conversations among Americans regarding the royal family often tread, but I think there was enough new territory discussed -- what is it like being a person of color living IN the monarchy, how do you reconcile being British but still being a product of colonization, what is the proper way to be queer in the public eye, etc. -- that I was engrossed start to finish.
I think the whole conversation about chemsex/addiction should probably be pulled because at times it seemed almost pro-chemsex to an odd degree. And I think the whole thing could be streamlined, but the bones of something really spectacular are there for me. I thought the inclusion of various monologues presented as the actors themselves telling stories (I believe the first and last are written largely by the actors and the rest are based on their stories but written by Tannahill) were incredibly moving.
Overall, very exciting to see a piece like this in a NY theatre. The audience was engaged and remained present beginning to end. That being said, mother of god this should not transfer.