BY: DM
Published 5 hours ago
Luke Newton, best known for “Bridgerton,” is ditching his regency-era waistcoat and stepping into something more fashionable. This fall, he takes on the role of legendary fashion designer Alexander McQueen in House of McQueen, a new Off-Broadway play set to debut in New York City.
According to his biography, McQueen was a British design prodigy born in 1969 in London’s East End. After leaving school at 16, he apprenticed on Savile Row – even famously embroidering “I am a c**t” into the lining of the Prince of Wales’s coat, before earning a master’s from Central Saint Martins. In 1996, at just 26, he was controversially installed as the chief designer of Givenchy. He left Givenchy in 2001 to focus on his label, Alexander McQueen, which he founded in 1992 and became a global powerhouse.
Newton is set to bring McQueen’s story to life in a production that follows the designer’s life, turmoil, and achievements. Here is everything we know about “House of McQueen.”
Luke Newton is starring as the troubled fashion icon.
Newton — best known for Netflix’s period romance — will headline “House of McQueen,” which will begin previews on August 19. The show will officially open on September 9 at The Mansion at Hudson Yards in New York City. Written by Darrah Cloud and directed by Sam Helfrich, the play promises an LED-fueled journey through McQueen’s life “from his early days as an emerging designer” to “building one of the most important fashion houses in the world.”
Executive producer Rick Lazes told Deadline that Newton was “an incredibly impressive multi-hyphenate” and “the perfect” choice to bring McQueen’s story to life. Also joining the cast is Tony-nominated Broadway star Emily Skinner, who will play Joyce McQueen — Lee’s mother. McQueen’s real-life nephew, Gary James, who spent years designing for McQueen’s menswear line, will serve as the show’s creative director.
The official synopsis describes “House of McQueen” as an epic coming-of-age tale. It tracks “a boy born in the East End of London…from making doll clothes for his mother’s friends to working in a tailor shop” all the way to “rising to the top of the fashion industry as chief designer for Givenchy and head of his own legendary fashion line.”
The play chronicles the struggles Alexander McQueen faced.
“House of McQueen” will not be filled with glitz and glamor. Lazes says that the play will confront McQueen’s darker struggles. “We are trying to touch on issues that are relevant to a younger generation, issues like bullying, rejection, homophobia, depression, and even suicide in the hope that this is a healing story,” Lazes told Vogue.
McQueen shot to fame for his boundary-breaking collections. But behind all that artistry was deep pain. McQueen was openly gay at a time when the industry — and society — was still slow to accept queer creators. He dealt with bullying, sexual abuse, and suffered bouts of depression, anxiety, and drug use. And when his mother Joyce passed in February 2010, he was inconsolable. Just eight days later, on Feb. 11, McQueen was found dead in his London home. He had taken his own life at just 40 years old.
Do you think McQueen’s struggles with homophobia and mental health are still relevant in today’s fashion industry?
