In the multi-award-winning TV period drama BRIDGERTON,  Colin was the number Three son,  but in most gay households that were glued to this series, he was very much number One.  Mainly because he was played by Brit actor Luke Newton, one of those actors who have been annoyingly blessed with both handsome looks and also with a considerable talent too.  It is probably a combination of both that has resulted in him now making his OFF-Broadway debut starring in the play House of McQueen, the story of the troubled genius fashion designer Alexander McQueen.

McQueen came from a working-class family in London’s East End and went on to become the most successful and most feted designer and couturier of his generation.  He founded his own Alexander McQueen label in 1992  when he was aged 23 years, and then he also became the chief designer at Givenchy from 1996 to 2001. His achievements in fashion earned him four British Designer of the Year awards (1996, 1997, 2001 and 2003), as well as the Council of Fashion Designers of America International Designer of the Year award in 2003. 

McQueen …..known as Lee….was openly gay, and very well liked, but in the end that wasn’t enough. He  died by suicide in 2010 at the age of 40, at his home in Mayfair, London, shortly after the death of his mother. A year later The Metropolitan Museum staged a major retrospectuve “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty,”  which with solid lines of people around the block every day, and very quickly became one of their 20 most popular exhibitions ever.

The Newton play is not the first time McQueen’s life has been dramatised  In May 2025 ‘McQueen’ written by James Phillips and directed by John Caird opened in London. The story was set over the course of one night. It focused on the visionary imagination of the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen, about a girl who breaks into the designer’s home to steal a dress and is caught by McQueen. It received mixed reviews.

The new play House of McQueen will take guests through Lee’s layered individual experience, from his early days as an emerging designer, to later building one of the most important fashion houses in the world, and ultimately his tragic passing in 2010. Within the performance, intimate relationships with key figures in his life ranging from mentor Isabella Blow to blood relatives will be explored surrounded by a highly produced landscape complete with floor-to-ceiling LED panels designed to shift environments on stage. Written by Darrah Cloud and directed by Sam Helfrich. it also stars Emily Skinner and Catherine LeFrer the  official opening  at The Mansion at Hudson Yards is set for September 9.

P.S. And there is nore.  Queer Palm Award winner the South African filmmaker Oliver Hermanus has been ‘attached’ to project of as yet unnamed McQueen biopic  .  Watch this space.