When Drew Droege, most widely known for his inspired viral Chloë Sevigny parody videos, spoke with The Queer Review in March 2020 about his one-man show Happy Birthday Doug, he mused, “I think we’re afraid as queer people to write flawed gay characters”. With his latest Off-Broadway comedy, Messy White Gays, the writer-star shows no hint of fear in that regard, offering us a quintet of deftly-crafted, deliciously problematic white gays. Biting and hilarious in equal measure, the show plays out like Rope meets Boys In the Band in modern-day Manhattan.
Having skillfully taken on all the roles like an enthusiastic Bottom (we’re talking Shakespeare here people) in his previous New York theatrical outings—the aforementioned Happy Birthday Doug and Bright Colors and Bold Patterns—Messy White Gays sees a shift in form for Droege with him portraying just one character here, forty-something married publicist Karl, as part of a talented all-queer ensemble cast. Fabulously shady and quick-witted, Karl, played with dazzling flair by Droege, is perhaps the most relatable of all the characters that we meet and, initially at least, feels like something of a surrogate for the audience amidst the show’s other messy gays.
Before Karl enters the scene, the play opens with an immediately captivating premise. Late on a Sunday morning, Caden (Dicks: The Musical co-creator and co-star Aaron Jackson on tightly-wound, fine form) and his boyfriend Brecken (a fantastic James Cusati-Moyer, Tony-nominated for Slave Play giving big bro-gay energy) have just returned from an afters, murdered the other boyfriend in their throuple, Monty, and are now bickering over his corpse.
As the thirty-something, now couple, are deciding what to do about the body of their deceased third, Caden recalls that he has invited a gaggle of gays over to their apartment for a boozy brunch. It’s on one of the top floors of a luxury skyscraper at 57th and Broadway, one of those spindly buildings that blight the skyline, sway in the wind and suffer from elevator issues, but has a killer view of Central Park. A setting that is handsomely rendered in Alexander Dodge’s ostentatiously minimalist set design. It is described in the stage directions as “a gorgeous stunning hatefully rich” apartment, and that is exactly what its fabulous furnishings, artwork and fittings scream, including a silver Jonathan Adler credenza upstage centre that will prove crucial to the plot.
The first unwelcome gay guest to arrive is frustrated Broadway baby Thacker (a magnificent Pete Zias, who, like Droege, is a regular performer at The Groundlings in Los Angeles) a flamboyant force of nature who whirls into the apartment like a one-man Hell’s Kitchen drag brunch. Zias’ delectable delivery, sublime comic timing and even the timbre of his voice, put me in mind of Harris Glenn Milstead as Divine and his embodiment of this larger-than-life, lovable creation steals the show. Even the way he draws out “gworl” for “girl”, had me tittering, while his landing of lines like “Fuck Disney” and “I hate magic” had me howling.
On the night I caught it, the play was interrupted multiple times by applause for Zias, including after delivering a bravura speech that chronicles his adventures in the building’s elevator while attempting to collect supplies of drugs and food. Even Thacker’s purse reveal, covered in Labubus, had the audience cackling. It is a fun detail that is typical of the show’s spot-on costume design by James + AC, that makes each character instantly recognizable as the kind of gay we see out in the wild, or might recognize in ourselves. OnlyFans content creator and self-described “slut pig” Brecken, for instance, who puts on a hyper-masc persona for his thirst-trap videos—sorry, his “art”—sports an all-black athleisure look with tank top, shorts and sneakers. He’s the kind of New York gay that perpetually appears to be their on the way to or coming from Gym U.
Next to join the party is hunky lifestyle influencer Addison (model-actor-cosmetics mogul Derek Chadwick), bringing all the muscle of a young Schwarzenegger and the conversation skills of a damp dishcloth. If this was The Golden Girls he’d be the Rose of the group. Playing dumb and dull but making it interesting to watch can be a tough act to pull off, but despite the character’s lack of charisma and smarts, Chadwick brings an overgrown puppydog warmth to Addison and gives him an endearingly sincere quality that keeps him captivating and very funny. Just tell him his quads are looking “hella hot” and you’ll have a friend for life.
Finally, Karl, who lives in the apartment below with his Black cop husband, enters the scene as a provocateur who delights in trickling lighter fluid on this already incendiary high-stakes setup as he prods and pokes at these rosé-sipping gays (straight from the bottle through curly plastic straws) who are jumpy around the now concealed dead body.
Droege’s scene-stealing barfly character in Luca Guadagnino’s Queer had an air of Oscar Wilde about him, as does his sharp observational writing here. There are a few one-liners that are worth the price of admission in their own right. Set in the world of Hell’s Kitchen gaydom with real-life bars, clubs and restaurants frequently name-checked, Messy White Gays is also fizzing with pop culture references (both vintage and contemporary). I must admit there were a couple of references that I didn’t immediately get, but with the laughs coming a mile a minute, I didn’t care a jot because I was already guffawing over something else. Though I have since investigated one joke I missed about Sean Young’s early 90s campaign to be cast as Catwoman in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns, a bizzare epiosde that I was previously unaware of. Thanks for flagging Mr. Droege.
Along with the fun, some of those laughs do have a sting in their tale, as Droege puts a mirror to his audience asking us if we recognize any of this only-ever-so-slightly heightened talk and behaviour in ourselves or our friends. As some super-wealthy messy white gays—Peter Thiel is briefly mentioned at one point—help to fund the current right-wing wave through donations, will the rest of us, complacently absorbed in our own bubbles, padam-padaming, do anything to improve the state of the world, or the community around us? Things may have changed in the decades since Mart Crowley’s The Boys In the Band premiered Off-Broadway in 1968, but how much does the damage we inflict on each other, and ourselves, still stem from the internalized homophobia that plagues so many of us who’ve grown up in a heteronormative society? This was among the questions that the play left me pondering. While there is certainly no sense of authorial judgment or shaming when it comes sex, drugs and alcohol consumption. More a sense of you do you, boo.
When the topic of racism first comes up it is in relation to the white Thacker believing that he can’t book a Broadway gig because he is being discriminated against, as he declares, “Black Lives Matter, sure, but what about us?!” Though in his mind he isn’t racist himself because his Grindr profile states: “Black dudes to the front. Brown boys next in line. Destroy my hole.” While Caden chips in that he “loves all the BIPOC plays and films” he’s watching and is “learning and listening and trying to do better”. Throughout the play Caden represents the performative kind of anti-racism that gives woke a bad name, where he wants to make sure he’s saying the right thing to alleviate his guilt and not get cancelled, rather than it coming from a genuine place. Hilariously, he claims that he’s “doing the work” of becoming a good ally simply by having Robin DiAngelo’s book White Fragility in his Amazon shopping cart, but not having actually bought it yet, let alone read it. While he wants acknowledgment for the way that he “consciously curated” the invite list to a recent house party “so that it wouldn’t be all white guys”.
Director Mike Donahue (whose credits include the LA premiere of Matthew Lopez’s The Inheritance) expertly sustains the tension and tempo, orchestrating these five high-energy, full-throttle performances at just the right pitch without allowing the action to become overbearing or cartoonish. While the excellent cast bounce off each other with finesse keeping the comedy bubbling throughout. Jeremy Chernick’s how-the-heck-did-they-do-that? special effects work deserves as special mention too, as does Jen Schriever’s chic lighting design.
With Messy White Gays, Droege once again proves himself to be a master satirist and an astute observer of human behaviour with a gift for writing piercing, witty dialogue. This a riotous, hugely entertaining night out that will give you plenty to talk about over brunch.
By James Kleinmann
Messy White Gays officially opened on Sunday, November 2nd, 2025 at Off-Broadway’s The Duke on 42nd Street at New 42 Studios (229 W 42nd Street, New York) and is now booking through Sunday, January 11th, 2026. For full details and to purchase tickets head to MessyWhiteGays.com.
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