Steve Pond's Blog, page 116

‘Dragon’s Lair’: James Bobin in Talks to Direct Live-Action Video Game Movie at Netflix

British filmmaker James Bobin (“Percy Jackson and the Olympians”) is in talks to direct the live action adaptation of 80’s video game classic “Dragon’s Lair” for Netflix.

Ryan Reynolds is attached to produce and star as main character Dirk the Daring.

The streamer closed a deal to acquire the rights to the laser game back in 2020. Roy Lee will produce “Dragon’s Lair” via his Vertigo Entertainment banner with Trevor Engelson of Underground Entertainment. The game’s original designer Don Bluth, along with Gary Goldman and Jon Pomeroy are also producing. Reynolds will produce via his Maximum Effort banner.

Screenwriters Dan and Kevin Hageman, who received story credit on “The Lego Movie” and most recently wrote “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,” will write the screenplay.

The story centers on Dirk the Daring, a knight of the kingdom, who was entrusted with the rescue of Princess Daphne from the wizard Mordroc and the evil dragon Singe.

Originally released for arcades in 1983 by Cinematronics, “Dragon’s Lair” was revolutionary for its time. The game used laserdisc technology and film quality animation from Don Bluth Studios. Gameplay is composed of numerous animated individual scenes which required the player to move the joystick in the right direction, or press the fire button at key moments in the animated sequences, that governed the hero’s actions and moved the story forward. Another laserdisc game from Don Bluth called “Space Ace” followed in the spring of 1984, and a “Dragon’s Lair” sequel called “Dragon’s Lair II: Time Wrap” was released in 1991. Bluth would later go on to direct animated movies “An American Tail” and “All Dogs Go to Heaven.

Bobin’s other credits include 2019’s “Dora and the Lost City of Gold” and “Muppets Most Wanted.” He is repped at UTA.

The InSneider first reported the news.

The post ‘Dragon’s Lair’: James Bobin in Talks to Direct Live-Action Video Game Movie at Netflix appeared first on TheWrap.

Jake Tapper Says Trump’s Truth Social Posts About Iran Are ‘Unworthy of the Decision at Hand’ | Video

Jake Tapper called for President Donald Trump to operate under the same skepticism he had on the campaign trail over foreign intervention by the U.S. military, saying his administration lacks sincerity amid escalating tensions between Israel and Iran.

Earlier today, when asked about whether or not the president would strike Iran, he leisurely responded: “I may do it. I may not do it. Nobody knows what I’m going to do.”

Trump has openly opposed U.S. military intervention in the past, specifically America’s role in the Iraq War, but he also campaigned on the fact that Iran must never receive a nuclear weapon.

“There has been an unfortunate lack of seriousness about so much of this unworthy of the decision at hand,” the CNN host said of the Trump administration’s chaotic handling of conflict in the Middle East.

“Whether it’s President Trump’s Truth Social post glibly telling the 10 million people of Tehran to flee their city or Vice President JD Vance getting into twitter spats about who leaked what, this is a time for gravity and purpose,” Tapper added.

Watch Tapper’s take here:

Tapper: Trump's big decision "tearing at the MAGA base"
Watch the video here: https://t.co/zIqHtRQs10 pic.twitter.com/yJdn4pOzgZ

— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) June 18, 2025

“The Lead” anchor also noted that the president is not on the same page as his Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, openly dismissing her department’s assessment. Gabbard said in March that the intelligence community came to the conclusion that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon. Trump still vehemently opposed this statement, telling reporters Wednesday that “I don’t care what she said I think they were very close to having one.”

Tapper concluded, almost pleading to Trump, to take care with how he approaches upcoming foreign policy actions, more similarly to how he did as a candidate in his early days as a politician.

“We here at ‘The Lead’ we do not pretend to have the answers as to what President Trump should do. We were not elected to do so,” Tapper said. “We just hope that the same skepticism that President Trump brought to these questions of war and peace as a candidate, the same willingness to challenge conventional thinking in D.C. We hope that is brought to bear now.”

You can watch “The Lead” segment in the video above.

The post Jake Tapper Says Trump’s Truth Social Posts About Iran Are ‘Unworthy of the Decision at Hand’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

Sold! The Lakers Remain Hollywood’s Team as Sale Sheds a Tie to a Storied Past

The HBO series “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” took a few liberties with the facts that irked some of those featured, but the show got one thing very right: playboy owner Jerry Buss turned the NBA franchise into Hollywood’s team, including the stars populating the court-side seats around the anchoring presence of Jack Nicholson, the embodiment of Hollywood cool.

Buss’ children — there are seven of them in all, led by Laker president Jeanie — haven’t exhibited his flair for marketing, showmanship or, for that matter, decadence. But there’s nevertheless a tinge of nostalgia in seeing the enterprise leave the family via a deal with billionaire Mark Walter, 46 years after the elder Buss planted his flag in L.A. — making what was then known as “the Fabulous Forum” more than just hyperbole — and a dozen years after his death.

Buss turned the Lakers into the hottest ticket in town, and positioned the team — around the magnetic figure of point guard Earvin “Magic” Johnson — as celebrities among celebrities. At the time, he paid $67.5 million for the Lakers, which included the Los Angeles Kings and the Forum.

While it represented a major gamble for Buss, that figure seems almost quaint set against the staggering reported $10 billion price tag of the new deal, which is indicative of just how hugely valuable major sports franchises have become. Indeed, the Lakers can take considerable satisfaction in knowing the sale eclipses the previous record of $6 billion paid earlier this year for their rival, the Boston Celtics, fueled by the $76 billion the league’s TV partners committed to televise games over the next 11 years.

Buss probably couldn’t have envisioned those numbers, but he saw NBA’s growth potential, as well as the value of merging entertainment with sports. He not only wooed actors to attend (the cameras always dutifully found them) but turned the Forum Club into one of L.A.’s most exclusive night spots, while adding music and the Laker Girls to create a carnival-like atmosphere surrounded the games.

The Lakers’ flashy fast-break style of basketball not only dovetailed with that image but inspired a nickname, “Showtime,” which defined the qualities that Buss cultivated. (HBO opted not to use that name when producing “Winning Time,” even though it was the title of the book on which it was based.)

John C. Reilly stars as Jerry Buss in the drama series “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.” (HBO)

“Jerry Buss helped set the league on the course it is on today,” then-commissioner David Stern said when Buss died in 2013. “Remember, he showed us it was about ‘Showtime,’ the notion that an arena can become the focal point for not just basketball, but entertainment. He made it the place to see and be seen.”

Buss’ legacy even included a “Succession”-like element of backstage drama, as his grown children engaged in a legal battle over control of the franchise, with daughter Jeanie eventually emerging as the victor and controlling owner after a dispute with brothers Jim and Johnny in 2017.

Johnson, for one, exulted over the latest deal, noting that Walter — one of the owners (along with Johnson) of the L.A. Dodgers — will “put in the resources needed to win,” which has certainly been true in terms of their stewardship of the defending World Series champions.

Walter will take over with a decided gift from Jeanie (who will maintain a role with the franchise) and the previous management thanks to this year’s midseason trade for Slovenian star Luka Dončić, the sort of charismatic player that not only puts people in seats but has helped fuel the NBA’s transformation into an international attraction.

Lon Rosen, who worked for the Lakers before becoming Johnson’s agent and subsequently joining the Dodgers, once described the Forum during the team’s championship-winning heyday as “the epicenter of where coolness was in the ‘80s.”

Through ups and downs on the court, the Lakers have never really lost that luster since Buss built it. But if Walter and company want to make good on their record-setting investment, they’re likely going to need the stars, and more, to continue to line up in their favor.

The post Sold! The Lakers Remain Hollywood’s Team as Sale Sheds a Tie to a Storied Past appeared first on TheWrap.

Blake Lively Effort to Block Justin Baldoni From Accessing Taylor Swift Messages Denied

Blake Lively’s effort to block “It Ends With Us” director and co-star Justin Baldoni from accessing private messages with Taylor Swift was shut down on Wednesday, as Judge Lewis J. Liman ruled that they were relevant to the ongoing litigation between the former colleagues.

Liman, however, put a protective order in place to keep Baldoni’s discovery from leaking to the press.

“Lively’s motion is rooted in the broader concern that the Wayfarer Parties are using demands for communications with Swift not ‘to obtain information relevant to claims and defenses in court, but to prop up a public relations narrative outside of court.’ But this concern does not justify denying the Wayfarer Parties relevant discovery,” Liman wrote. “If the issue is that the Wayfarer Parties may leak the requested communications to the press, this concern is addressed by the Protective Order issued by the Court.”

Lively moved for a protective order last week, arguing that the requests were not only unnecessary—since the Wayfarer Parties previously claimed to have “everything they needed” from Swift—but also part of a broader “media strategy” designed to generate press coverage and undermine her.

“Given that Lively has represented that Swift had knowledge of complaints or discussions about the working environment on the film … the requests for messages with Swift … are reasonably tailored to discover information that would prove or disprove Lively’s harassment and retaliation claims,” Judge Liman said in his ruling.

The court rejected Lively’s motion, finding that her communications with Swift were likely relevant given Lively’s own assertion that Swift had knowledge of working conditions on set. Simultaneously, the court also denied a cross-motion by the Wayfarer Parties to compel Lively to accelerate production of other categories of documents. The judge found that Lively was already complying with the agreed production schedule and had made reasonable proposals for reciprocal document exchanges that the Wayfarer Parties declined.

A spokesperson for Lively told TheWrap of the decision, “The Court outright denied the Wayfarer Parties’ motion to compel documents from Ms. Lively, who has produced far more documents in this case than the Wayfarer Parties combined. Further, the Court’s protective order ruling rests on the Wayfarer Parties’ admission that they received nothing from Taylor Swift, which is exactly the opposite of what their ‘insider’ claimed two weeks ago.” 

“As for the rest, Justin Baldoni and the Wayfarer parties demanded access to Taylor Swift’s private communications—despite having already subpoenaed and then withdrawn that subpoena,” the statement continued. “Baldoni’s desire to drag Taylor Swift into this has been constant dating back to August 2024, when the crisis PR firm led by Melissa Nathan included her in their ‘Scenario Planning’ document, referred to her as a bully, and called for a strategy to influence the ‘TS fanbase’ We will continue to call out Baldoni’s relentless efforts to exploit Ms Swift’s popularity, which from day one has been nothing more than a distraction from the serious sexual harassment and retaliation accusations he and the Wayfarer parties are facing.”

The actor-director-producer’s legal team subpoenaed the pop star back in May, claiming that there was necessary information she had in relation to his opposing lawsuits with Lively, her longtime friend. The subpoena was quickly denounced May 9 by Swift’s team, who argued that the singer’s only involvement in the making of “It Ends With Us” was allowing one of her songs to be used in the film.

Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman then advocated for Swift’s subpoena in a May 14 letter to Judge Liman, alleging that Lively had been extorting the singer-songwriter for public support as she sued her director and co-star for sexual harassment and retaliation and Baldoni countersued her, her husband Ryan Reynolds and the New York Times for defamation.

The post Blake Lively Effort to Block Justin Baldoni From Accessing Taylor Swift Messages Denied appeared first on TheWrap.

Michelle Obama Knows People Want Her Opinion on FLOTUS Farce ‘Oh, Mary!’: ‘I Wasn’t Sure What Was Going On’

Michelle Obama left Broadway’s “Oh, Mary!” — the Tony-winning FLOTUS farce from playwright and star Cole Escola — wondering one thing: “Who thought of this?”

Swinging by Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers’ “Las Culturistas” podcast on Wednesday, the former first lady shared that she has indeed seen Escola’s alternate history comedy that envisions Abraham Lincoln’s wife, First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, as a drunk, wannabe cabaret star. Obama shared went in blind but came out loving it.

“We imagine that everyone’s turning to you to see how you’re responding to this specific play,” Yang mused of Obama’s theater-going habits.

“A lot of times, I sneak in afterwards, so I don’t think that people knew I was there because I come in at dark, I slip in at the side and just sit,” she explained. “And I didn’t know fully what ‘Oh, Mary!’ was, right? So I went with a friend, and it was a recommendation. They said it was a play. And I didn’t do the research, which I usually do. So I wasn’t sure what was going on.”

But then the curtain opened up, the spotlight went on, and a curly-haired, hoop dress-clad Escola entered the stage in drunken hysteria.

“Scene 1, I am cracking up,” Obama recalled, but admitted that she was aware of how she was responding in the darkened audience. “[I was] feeling like, ‘Oh my god, if people see me laughing, it’s going to be on Page Six!’ But I loved it — so happy for the Tony win. I mean, you know, just out of your mind — this is when you think, ‘Who thought of this? What’s going inside that head that thought of retelling history in this very interesting but powerful way?’ Just, I loved it. Loved it.”

Rogers, a peer and friend of Escola, then shared that “Oh, Mary!” may read as a political farce, but it’s also very personal to its creator.

“And also when you get to know Cole, and you really realize that so much of their actual personal experience is in that show even if you don’t know — like, the things that they’ve struggled with and what they’ve wanted and the kind of resistance they’ve been met with is all in there.”

“In the bones of Mary Todd Lincoln,” Obama quipped, later adding: “I had a great time.”

The hot-ticketed Broadway production is fresh off a number of Tony Award wins, including a history-making win for Cole Escola, who became the first nonbinary performer to win Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play. The production announced Wednesday that “RuPaul’s Drag Race” icon-turned-Broadway regular Jinkx Monsoon will take over the role of Mary Todd Lincoln in August.

“Las Culturistas” is an iHeartPodcast and Will Ferrell’s Big Money Players Network.

The post Michelle Obama Knows People Want Her Opinion on FLOTUS Farce ‘Oh, Mary!’: ‘I Wasn’t Sure What Was Going On’ appeared first on TheWrap.

Meeri Cunniff to Lead Programming for FX, Freeform Networks and Disney Entertainment FAST Channels

Disney and ABC News Group have appointed Meeri Cunniff to oversee the content planning and programming strategy for FX Networks, Freeform and Disney Entertainment’s free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels.

In her new role as vice president, Cunniff will work closely with the content leaders at each of the networks, with a focus on driving multi-platform audience reach and growth opportunities with a heavy emphasis on selecting and scheduling acquired movies and series. She will also work closely with the content and brand leaders at Freeform Originals to optimize scheduling opportunities for original programming.

Cunniff will report to FX, National Geographic, Freeform and Disney Branded Television executive vice president of programming Christian Drobnyk.

“Meeri brings a wealth of experience across a wide range of brands and audiences,” Drobnyk said in a statement. “Her strategic expertise and deep understanding of the television landscape will be a tremendous asset as we continue to evolve our content offerings across platforms.”

Cunniff joins Disney after holding senior level content strategy positions at both NBCUniversal and Paramount Global.

At NBCU, she was E! Entertainment and Universal Kids’ senior vice president of program strategy, where she led strategic planning and scheduling efforts for long-form content across both linear and digital platforms.

She was responsible for developing and executing cross-functional, multi-platform launch strategies for over 400 original hours annually, which included movies, live events, news, and both scripted and unscripted series. She also successfully managed E!’s entry into original scripted series and romantic comedy films, as well as major events like “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” “Live from the Red Carpet,” and the relaunch of the People’s Choice Awards.

At Paramount Global, she led new approaches to franchise management and content strategy, as well as multi-platform scheduling and acquisitions for MTV/MTV2. She was also responsible for overseeing the rebrand of The N to TeenNick and managed the long-running, Peabody award-winning series, “Degrassi: The Next Generation.”

Most recently, Cunniff served as the head of content and marketing strategy for the TCLtv+ streaming platform in the U.S. and Canada. She was responsible for platform curation, launching new channels, and optimizing performance for over 400 FAST channels and an AVOD library.

“FX and Freeform represent two of television’s most iconic and irreverent brands, and the FAST opportunities across Disney Entertainment are truly endless,” Cunniff said. “I am in awe of the innovative work that these teams do and can’t wait to work with them to develop strategies that maximize viewership and deepen engagement across platforms.” 

The post Meeri Cunniff to Lead Programming for FX, Freeform Networks and Disney Entertainment FAST Channels appeared first on TheWrap.

‘The Buccaneers’ Season 2 Episode Release Guide

Nan St. George has officially become the Duchess of Tintagel, as Season 2 of Apple TV+’s “The Buccaneers” picks up minutes from where its first season concluded.

Her new title is not the only thing that the protagonist must contend with as she enters this new stage in her life. Nan (Kristine Froseth) married Theo (Guy Remmers) for the security of her social status, but her heart still remains with Guy after she slept with him the night before her wedding.

Her sister Jinny escaped her abusive husband Lord James Seadown with Nan’s love interest Guy to protect her. And Nan’s birth mother, who she has never met, attended her wedding.

The duchess has found herself in a new heap of messes to say the least.

“The Buccaneers” returned to Apple TV+ Wednesday for its second season. In additon to the show’s season regulars, this season will feature new guest stars, inlcuding Leighton Meester, who appears as Nan’s biological mother.

For a full recap of where to watch the modernized period drama, keep reading:

When does “The Buccaneers” premiere?

The period drama returned on Wednesday June 18.

Where can I watch “The Buccaneers”?

The young adult series is available to stream only on Apple TV+.

Are the episodes released weekly or all at once?

New episodes will be released weekly on Wednesdays, concluding with the season finale August 6. See the full release schedule below.

“The Duchess of Tintagel” – June 18“Holy Grail” – June 25“Get Her Out” – July 2“Ice Cream” – July 9“A Whole Love” – July 16“Every Single Piece of My Heart” – July 23“All Rise” – July 30“She Knows” – Aug 6 Where does “The Buccaneers” pick up?

Season 2 of “The Buccaneers” returns as Nan and Theo exit their wedding ceremony happily as duke and duchess. Nan’s sister Jinny has successfully escaped her abusive husband with Guy. And Nan’s biological mother is attendance at the wedding – fans don’t have to wait all season long to see this reunion.

Who stars in “The Buccaneers”?

Kristine Froseth, Matthew Broome, Guy Remmers, Aubri Ilbrag, Alisha Boe, Mia Threapleton, Josie Totah and Imogen Waterhouse all return for the second season of the Apple TV+ series. Christina Hendricks, Josh Dylan and Barney Fishwick also return in their roles from Season 1.

Leighton Meester guest stars this season as Nan’s biological mother, Nell.

Watch the trailer:

The post ‘The Buccaneers’ Season 2 Episode Release Guide appeared first on TheWrap.

Jimmy Kimmel Imagines the Pitch for Trump’s Cell Phone: ‘No 5G Mind Control Here’ | Video

Jimmy Kimmel isn’t convinced the new call phone being promoted by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. is on the level — particularly because the product itself appears to be full of it.

And as such, the ABC host imaged a fake commercial for the new phone that promised there will be “no 5G mind control.”

“He’s also selling Trump brand mobile phones now,” Kimmel said during his monologue on Tuesday. “Their website, Trump mobile, was a mess from the get go. When they launched yesterday, their coverage map said Gulf of Mexico, instead of ‘Gulf of America.’ So he had them take that down.”

“There have been reports that it is difficult to even order the phone, and even though they’re billing the phones as all American and made in the USA, you can see the phone appears to be a reskinned version of a Chinese phone made by a company called wing Tech,” Kimmel continued. “It sells the same phone on Amazon for $171 right now, but once it gets spray painted gold and emblazoned with the word Trump, it’s $500. He’s selling an All-American Chinese phone.”

After roasting Eric and Don Jr.’s claims the phone will be made in the United States, and then telling some other jokes, Kimmel noted how the day after this cell phone company was announced, Trump told a journalist he “doesn’t believe in telephones.”

“Boy, he really doesn’t want to take Eric’s calls. Does he?” Kimmel joked. “Have you ever seen Trump try to use a phone? He’s like a crow with an iPad. He’s like staring at her with his head cocked, pecking away, hoping that, like a snack comes out of it or something, but that ain’t gonna stop him from selling one.”

Then he rolled a fake commercial for these phones, the transcript of which said: “Say goodbye to woke mobile plans and say hello to the Trump phone, the only phone with hair. Trump phones are proudly stickered ‘made in the USA,’ with exclusive perks like accidental war plan alerts from defense secretary Pete Hegseth. There’s no 5G mind control here. Trump phone operates entirely on string. So many exclusive, expensive kiss the ringtones. Don’t sleep on this deal like that dead, evil robot. Joe Biden, order your trump mobile phone today. Trump mobile may sell your data to China.”

Watch the whole monologue below now:

The post Jimmy Kimmel Imagines the Pitch for Trump’s Cell Phone: ‘No 5G Mind Control Here’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

Incredulous Tucker Carlson Has Shouting Match With Ted Cruz Over Basic Iran Facts: ‘You’re Calling for the Overthrow’ | Video

Tucker Carlson had an amusingly heated argument with fellow conservative, Texas Senator Ted Cruz in the latest episode of his podcast, when the duo discussed potential U.S. military action against Iran. But the heat wasn’t about the action itself, but rather about basic facts about the western Asian country.

Cruz was fully in support of attacking Iran, and Carlson, who was recently insulted by Donald Trump for opposing such action, gave Cruz the business of Cruz’s clear lack of actual knowledge about a country he wants to attack.

“How many people live in Iran, by the way?” Carlson asked. “I don’t know the population at all… I don’t know the population,” Cruz rpelied.

“You don’t know the population in the country you seek to topple?” Carlson, asked with an incredulous tone of voice. He then clarified that Iran currently has an estimated population of 92 million. “How could you not know that?”

“I don’t sit around memorizing population tables,” Cruz spat out. “Well, it’s kind of relevant, because you’re calling for the overthrow of the government,” Carlson retorted.

When Cruz asked why that matters, Carlson said, “Why you don’t know anything about the country?” He then asked Cruz about the ethnic makeup of Iran, to which Cruz responded “you don’t know anything about Iran, you’re the one who claims they’re not trying to murder Donald Trump.”

At that Carlson burst out in sarcastic laugher, declaring “you don’t believe that” to Cruz. At this point, Cruz referred to Israeli strikes on Iran, though he used the pronoun “we” to describe it, which sounded in the moment as if the US and Israel were conducting joint operations.

“You’re breaking news here because the US government last night denied [it],
Carlson said. “The National Security Council spokesman Alex heifer, denied, on behalf of Trump, that we were acting on Israel’s behalf in any offensive capacity.”

“We’re not bombing them, Israel’s bombing them,: Crus insisted. “You just said we were,” Carlson replied.

Anyway, you all get the gist. Watch the wild argument below:

Tucker: How many people live in Iran?

Cruz: I don’t know the population

Tucker: You don’t know the population of the country you seek to topple?

Cruz: How many people live in Iran?

Tucker: 92 million. How could you not know that? pic.twitter.com/SxiKdQv073

— Acyn (@Acyn) June 18, 2025

The post Incredulous Tucker Carlson Has Shouting Match With Ted Cruz Over Basic Iran Facts: ‘You’re Calling for the Overthrow’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

‘Prince Faggot’ Off Broadway Review: One of the Year’s Best New Plays Is a Wild Royal Family Portrait

It can safely be reported that the arresting new play “Prince Faggot” will not be staged in the United Kingdom anytime soon, and not because the title contains a slur for homosexuality. Rather, the prince of the title refers to Prince George, the 11-year-old son of Prince William and Princess Kate. Back in 2017, when the royal family was touring Poland and Germany, Prince George of Wales, only four years old at the time, struck a very stylish pose when he and his family were lifted away on a helicopter. Is this royal kid gay? Is it forbidden even to speculate on the sexual orientation of children?

Jordan Tannahill’s “Prince Faggot” opened Tuesday at Playwrights Horizons in a co-production with Soho Rep, and as the play makes clear in its first few minutes, all children have romantic desires even if they don’t know what sex is all about. It’s assumed that children are heterosexual, which is untrue, or that children are asexual, which is absurd.

“Prince Faggot” is half fantasy, about what would happen a decade from now if the adult Prince George were gay; and it’s part reality, about the childhoods of the gay and trans actors who perform in this world premiere production, which is replete with those same actors striking very elegant poses in photographs taken years ago. In other words, “Prince Faggot” is meta-theater at its best and most thought-provoking.

It doesn’t mean anything to call “Prince Faggot” the best play of the 2025-26 theater season, which is only about six weeks old. It does mean something to put Tannahill’s play in the same august company as Bess Wohl’s “Liberation,” Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ “Purpose” and Emil Weinstein’s “Becoming Eve,” all of which opened earlier this year. As with these American writers, Tannahill, a Canadian, is a great storyteller, and he runs fast and furiously with this riveting narrative: What happens if a contemporary prince comes out as gay and marries another man when he’s finally king?

Tannahill attempts to distance his George from the real George. An actor in “Prince Faggot” tells us, “Yes there’s a real child named George, but obviously this is not his story, only he can write that for himself. This is our story.” OK.

Also, in the Playbill credits, Tannahill lists the actors, and instead of giving us the characters they play, he identifies them with a numeral, one through six. Fortunately, on stage, he is far less timid. John McCrea delivers a most troubled and sympathetic Prince George, with K. Todd Freeman and Rachel Crowl playing his very supportive parents, William and Kate. As Tannahill sees this couple, the future king and queen are supportive to the point of incredulity. The pay-off is that their benign behavior in the face of a PR storm provides the launchpad for the double-cast David Greenspan to steal the show.

When George comes out to his parents, and in the process tells them about his new non-white boyfriend (the very charismatic Mihir Kumar, a real heartthrob), their major concern is that the prince came out to one of the palace’s gay butlers (Greenspan) five years earlier. When William and Kate finally meet the boyfriend on a weekend at Anmer Hall, they leave it to the royal family’s female publicist (again, Greenspan, being a comic delight) to probe into the young commoner’s past to warn him of the impending tabloid chopping block. There’s no time to lose: A photo of the two young men holding hands on the train from London has already appeared in the tabloids.

“Prince Faggot” shares a number of themes, especially the nature of privacy and celebrity, with the currently streaming Netflix documentary “Harry & Meghan.” Fortunately, Tannahill doesn’t turn his subjects into pathetic victims as they lounge around in luxury at their Montecito estate.

As written by Tannahill and performed by McCrea, Prince George quickly emerges as a real piece of work, a complex character who captivates without becoming a casualty of the press and the royal family a la Harry and Meghan — not to mention Princess Diana in many books, TV shows and movies.

This fictional George enjoys a sex life so unusual that all cellphones at the Playwrights Horizons theater get the pre-curtain bag treatment. The simulated sex is graphic and often features bondage. Tannahill’s ruminations on the royalty’s fondness for ritual and decorum makes this prince a perfect fit for the world of S&M play.

N’yomi Allure Stewart rounds out the cast playing Princess Charlotte. Kate and Williams’ youngest child, Prince Louis, may be relieved to know that Tannahill has left him out of this family portrait. Perhaps the playwright also should have eliminated his sister as well. Playing Charlotte, Stewart doesn’t have much to do, but she deliver a speech, based on her rehearsal interview, on what it means to be a princess at one of New York City’s drag balls. These spoken biographies, fictional or not, could interrupt the flow of the narrative; instead, under Shayok Misha Chowdhury’s astute direction, each solo moment enhances, and sometimes even dominates, the royal drama. Chowdhroy also manages to create glamor and grandeur, as well as real pathos, on a very small stage. His design team is top-notch: David Zinn (sets), Montana Levi Blanco (costumes), Isabella Byrd (lighting) and Lee Kinney (sound and original music).

The post ‘Prince Faggot’ Off Broadway Review: One of the Year’s Best New Plays Is a Wild Royal Family Portrait appeared first on TheWrap.