Crooked Cross (c) Todd Cerveris Photography
Theater: Crooked Cross
Presented by the Mint Theater at Theatre Row
Courtesy of the venerable Mint Theater, with its mandate to give new life to lost plays, writer Sally Carson reaches out from 1933 Germany to warn the U.S. of today about what can happen with complacency during the creeping dominance of fascism. Crooked Cross, based on her own novel, tells the story of Lexa Kluger (Ella Stevens), a young German woman, who at the start of the play is celebrating Christmas with a loving family that includes her parents (Liam Craig and Katie Firth), her two brothers (Gavin Michaels and Jacob Winter) and her fiancé Moritz (Samuel Adams). That tranquil and joyful scene leads into New Year’s Eve where the youths celebrate the coming of 1933 and how the newly elected Nazi party will bring prosperity back to Germany. As the year proceeds and Lexa’s brothers are slowly buying into the rhetoric of the party that is giving them jobs, the usually apolitical Lexa finds herself witnessing the radicalization of her country, especially towards Moritz, a beloved friend of the family now slowly being alienated and marginalized as a Jew. When first performed in Germany, Carson defended her play as less a rebuke to the ruling party than just a love story set with present times as a backdrop. But make no mistake, Carson is not only criticizing the Nazi party’s practice of mining the disillusionment of the young German people, but also its use of the Jewish people, already scrutinized, as a scapegoat. Not unlike the current US administration and their enablers demonizing trans people and the undocumented Latino population (as well as the NFL hiring an American pop singer ho plans to sing mostly in Spanish at next year’s Super Bowl). The racism and homophobia of MAGA are dismissed by many people, just as the antisemitism of the Nazis was considered “just” a part of their reformation doctrine (Project 2025, anyone, it’s right there).
Crooked Cross (c) Todd Cerveris Photography
The play, sensitively directed by Mint artistic director Jonathan Banks, should feel like a chill down the spine of anyone who thinks they are doing everything in their power to criticize and denounce the normalization of the MAGA agenda targeting their dissenters by sending the military to liberal cities and weaponizing ICE as a threat (which the Department of Homeland Security Secretary vowed she would do at the Super Bowl). Lexa is told not to be seen hanging out with Mortiz, whom his former friends are now openly hostile to. Even Lexa’s parents, jaded by World War I, seem to simply accept the direction Germany is going, as her mother says, “they were elected.” This is strong stuff, and the cast is up to the task, especially Stevens and Adams as the young engaged-to-be-married couple, but the play slowly falls on the shoulders of young Gavin Michaels as the youngest brother Helmy, whose close relationship with Lexa, is tested by his loyalty to Germany. His love for his sister and her resistance to political dogma have created a rift between them. All the technical elements of the play, including a wonderfully simple but effective set by Alexander Woodward, are top-notch. Crooked Cross, a reference to the swastikas that slowly creep into the Kluger household, is a story between the headline that both liberal minded Germans should have heeded and their counterparts in Contemporary America should still have time to learn from.
Prince Faggot (c) Marc J. Franklin
Theater: Prince Faggot
At Studio Seaview
Recent productions have created a pre-show party atmosphere by playing dance music and selling show-themed cocktails from productions as diverse as Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club to The Collaboration (about the meeting of Basquiat and Warhol) to Saturday Church. When you first walk into the newly christened Studio Seaview on W.43rd St (the former Off-Broadway house of 2nd Stage) for Prince Faggot, it’s even more over the top. All three of the shows above have queer themes, but come on, faggotry is a league of its own. The odd thing is, despite the title and the vibe of the pre-show, Jordan Tannahill’s play is actually more somber and reflective of the inner life of the LGBTQ+ community reflected by its cast. Yes, there are salacious moments in the play, but how can there not be when it focuses on real-life Prince George, the future king of England, currently 12 years old, imagining what his life would be like as a gay royal (there’s a whole backstory regarding a picture of a very jolly George that seems to be the inspiration for the play). Prince George (John McCrea) has finally decided to introduce his boyfriend Dev (Mihir Kumar) to his parents, William (K. Todd Freeman) and Kate (Rachel Crowl), and his sister Charlotte (N’yomi Allure Stewart). If you’re asking where’s Louis, the spare brother is nowhere to be found, although amusingly referred to. Even before the young couple can have tea, in swoops Jacqueline Davies, Buckingham Palace’s communications secretary (David Greenspan, at his most succulent), to try to head off any gossip or tabloid press that might result from the first openly gay royal. From that moment on, the burden of both being young and in love while also keeping in mind the prince’s sovereign duty is the main thrust of the play. If this sounds like a fun romantic comedy in the manner of the popular Red, White and Royal Blue film of last year, think again. Tannahill gives these two men real life demons as well as kinks that would be unseemly for the British monarch (Prince Andrew, excepted). For anyone who finds the title a bit risqué, you’re in for a bumpy ride.
Prince Faggot (c) Marc J. Franklin
