BY MICHAEL MUSTO | A witty actor known for performances in Luca Guadagnino’s Queer and, onstage, in the hit spoof Titanique, Drew Droege is also an acclaimed playwright with an eye towards demystifying gay hauteur.
His plays Bright Colors and Bold Patterns and Happy Birthday, Doug comically underlined the internal oppression of a certain strand of the gay community, and his new one–Messy White Gays–just opened on November 2 at The Duke on 42nd Street, looking to pour some battery acid onto his usual wrecking ball.
Say the PR materials, the play “shines a harsh overhead light on the pores of White Gaydom, revealing what happens when throuples crumble, neighbors bicker and rich and pretty clash with hot and dumb. It’s Sunday in Hell’s Kitchen. Brecken and Caden have just murdered their boyfriend and stuffed his body into a Jonathan Adler credenza.” And they’ve invited friends over for brunch! Here is my interview with Drew:
Congrats, Drew! What part do you play? The credenza?
I’m basically the downstairs neighbor of the murderous, cantankerous, messy white gays. The play opens with a murder and it gets more complicated with each character that comes in. There’s a dead body in the room. Most people don’t know about it. I come in almost halfway through the show. This play is my darkest and meanest and angriest, but hopefully the funniest as well.
Is it based on Alfred Hitchcock’s gay-subtext-laden 1948 movie Rope, in which two guys strangle a former classmate and stuff him in a chest that becomes the dinner buffet table?
I’ve been saying I’ve been inspired by Hitchcock.
But it’s about a throuple.
Yes. The two are killing the third. We never meet him. The play opens with him being murdered.
Is it based on when Frankie Grande was in a throuple?
(laughs) I don’t know. I love Frankie. I wanted to talk about what is wrong with white gays right now, which is what I’ve been rooted in. We have good intentions, but we don’t understand that we center ourselves in all minority voices. I go to a lot of parties and it’s all gay white men there. We use each other and say, “I’m done with you.” It can be very transactional. And we understand every form of oppression because we’re gay, but we also walk through the world as white men. We have a lot of privilege that we deny. I don’t have the answer for it, but it’s worth exploring. I didn’t want to make any of the characters overtly racist or transphobic or misogynistic, but they say racist, transphobic, and misogynistic things without realizing it, which is what we do. How can you have a conversation about race when it’s all white people? White people love to talk about it, while BIPOC people roll their eyes.
Are you ever afraid that your point of view on gay life is too sour?
No, I don’t worry. There’s so much of the community that I love and embrace. But I’m nervous as a creator to write a role as a hero or a good person because it’s gross and disingenuous. We all have flaws. Also, I’m not saying Messy White Gays is a documentary or that this is all gay people. Each character is a type that’s ripe for satire.
Speaking of which: How did you get the part of John Dume, the bitchy gay fop in Queer? Were you recommended?
Luca was a fan of my Chloe Sevigny videos. [Droege impersonates the actress striking poses while tossing off her thoughts about trendy things that have piqued her interest.] He reached out and asked me to do it. It was so sweet of him because everybody wants to work with him. He could have gotten anybody he wanted. If I auditioned, I definitely wouldn’t have gotten it because they had their pick of anyone.
What direction did he give you?
He told me the character was very mean and very shy. I thought it was so useful, those two things to play off each other. I’m playing this queen in this world of downtrodden, sad people. The idea that I was shy on top of just mean was helpful. I could do a lot behind Daniel Craig’s back, when he wasn’t looking. I could be more catty, and then, when I’m talking to him, I’m uncomfortable. It got me thinking about the men in that pre-Stonewall era who moved to Mexico to avoid persecution. What would it be like to be this person who puts on these gorgeous clothes and sits at the bar and judges?
That’s me, except for the gorgeous clothes. You also do a drag version of Golden Girls in L.A.
We do it about twice a year. It’s great to mix it up and go from one medium to the other.
You play Rose Nylund, though I bet most people assume you’d be Dororthy.
Well, have you met Jackie Beat? I would love to play Dorothy, but never as long as Jackie is doing it, because she’s the quintessential Dorothy Zbornak drag queen. I do this acid trippy, insane Betty-White-on-mescaline performance. She’s like a child. She’s always learning and she’s always teaching.
“Messy White Gays” plays at The Duke on 42nd Street at New 42 Studios (229 W. 42d St. btw. 7th & 8th Aves.). Written by Drew Droege; Directed by Mike DonohueRuntime: 80 minutes, no intermission. For tickets ($54, companion seating to $255, premium), click here. Through Jan. 11, 2026 / Performances (Mon, Wed, Thurs, Fri at 7;30pm; Sat at 5pm & 9pm; Sun at 3pm &7pm plus some Tuesdays and some variations on weekly performance times). For Drew Droege’s website, click here. For the play’s website, click here.
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MICHAEL MUSTO | Musto is a columnist, pop cultural and political pundit, NYC nightlife chronicler, author, and the go-to gossip responsible for the long-running (1984-2013) Village Voice column, “La Dolce Musto.” His work appears on ChelseaCommunityNews.comas well as thedailybeast.com, and he is writing for the Village Voice(which debuted in April of 2021) and RAG Magazine (which debuted in October of 2025). Follow Musto on Instagram, via @michaelmusto.
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