"A gloriously grotesque aluminum corset in the shape of an alien spine; a pair of pearlescent antlers draped in embroidered lace; stiletto heels, bulbous, scaly, and spiky, like armadillos balancing on their heads and tails; wraithlike models with black contact lenses or silver prosthetic jaws, or covered in feathers, chain mail, spray paint, or the shells of razor clams ..."
"Bio-plays are tough, and it's an extra-tall order to dramatize a figure of as much complexity, ambition, and tragedy as McQueen. In his lifetime he blazed brief and blinding, like a haute couture Kurt Cobain. After books and documentaries and one of the most-visited Met exhibitions of all time, he's practically canonized - Our Lady of Savage Beauty. The playwright Darrah Cloud's work couldn't have been easy. And still, poor Lee."
"Both the artist and the man deserve better. Several times during Cloud's play - which is repetitive, engineless, and at times borderline incoherent - I found myself thinking of the 2018 Freddie Mercury biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody. It's much more solid (and more fun) than House of McQueen, but the two share the unfortunate distinction of being highly formulaic odes to formula-demolishing geniuses."
Lee Alexander McQueen produced wildly theatrical, often grotesque fashion: aluminum corsets shaped like alien spines, pearlescent antlers in embroidered lace, scaly spiked stiletto heels, and models transformed with prosthetic jaws, feathers, chain mail, spray paint, or razor clam shells. McQueen died by suicide in 2010 at age 40 after a meteoric, tumultuous career marked by ambition, danger, and strangeness. His oeuvre elicits intense excitement and feeling that surpass the impact of House of McQueen, a stage attempt at homage staged at the Mansion in Hudson Yards. Biographical theater faces high stakes; the production reads as repetitive, engineless, and at times incoherent, echoing formulaic biopic tendencies.
Read at Vulture
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