The best theater challenges the audience to look inward and pose difficult questions. Drew Droeges newest show, coming to off-Broadway this fall, Messy White Gays, sounds like it will be just that. The title provides a hint for what audiences will be getting themselves into, but theyll most likely be walking away having seen something entirely different.In Messy White Gays, Drew Droegethe sharp-penned and quick-witted diarist of the contemporary homosexualshines 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, the shows press release reads. Its Sunday morning in Hells Kitchen. Brecken and Caden have just murdered their boyfriend and stuffed his body into a Jonathan Adler credenza. Unfortunately, theyve also invited friends over for brunch. And theyre out of limes! Feel bad for them!Droeges show is an unflinching look into the seedier underbelly of the queer communitygay men who are nice to your face and gossip about you behind your back; those who uphold the stereotypical ideal body type; and those who are unaware of their internalized racism and fatphobia (among other things). The shows creator sat down with Out Magazine to talk about the shows recently announced cast, the inspiration behind the characters, and the cultural moment at which this show is being presented. Drew DroegeMarc J. Franklin for Messy White GaysOut: How did the idea for Messy White Gays come to be?Drew Droege: When I had done Bright Colors and Bold Patterns, I had written about a play that was before a gay wedding in Palm Springs. Then I did Happy Birthday Doug, which was during a birthday party in Los Angeles. So I always said jokingly, the next play has to be after a gay funeral. I'm grateful that I don't have a significant connection to funerals and the gay community, and I just none of that really resonated with me, but it was banging around in my head.During the pandemic, I was watching a lot of films and at the time, we were having all of this reckoning with the Black Lives Matter movement. I was seeing white gays acting wrong about all of it, and some had good intentions, but a lot of them centered themselves and victimized themselves, or were trying hard to be part of the conversation. I wanted to be part of the conversation as well, but as a creative person, I felt I couldn't write about the brown or Black experience. I can't write about the trans experience But I can write about white gay men and how we can dispose of each other in the gay community, and how privilege is very tricky to recognize in yourself because you think, Oh, I understand oppression because I'm gay, but if you walk through the world as a white man, youre still a white man.So I thought, What if it's a murder instead of a funeral? because a murder feels so much more comedic to me and it sort of all just came out I was angry at our community for feeling like we understood all the complexity of what's going on and what other people are trying to get us to realize. The way that I can handle that, instead of just running out in the street and screaming, is to write a play that is specifically about white people who are all problematic.I think that this show is coming at a particular moment in time because, as a queer person of color who is around white gays often, theres a need to hold the mirror up for them.I think what's trickier writing about racism and privilege is the small stuff that we have within ourselves that we don't recognize, we don't want to recognize, or because we don't want to be racist. We want to be on the right side of history, and so we'd rather say I'm not, instead of going, Oh shit, maybe I am, and maybe I can change that.Ive gone to so many gay parties, and it's all gay white men at the party. Nobody there is, you know, you know, saying anything overtly racist, also maybe no one's acknowledging that this is weird We all think we're good because none of us are MAGA, but it's way more complicated than that. We haven't done the work, were not done because we bought a copy of White Fragility on Amazon. So we wanted to play like that comedically, and hopefully, people can see themselves in that. Drew Droege and costarsMarc J. Franklin for Messy White GaysWhat sort of place do you think satire has in this political moment when conveying this message?I think satire is a beautiful, blistering tool to hold a mirror up to what's happening right now. When we're able to laugh at something, we all collectively, in a room together, recognize what's wrong and the work that we have to do. Otherwise, it's just a polemic. Otherwise, it's just us yelling. I hate going to a movie or a play where I'm just not challenged. Where everything I thought before I walked in, I continued to think when I left. I don't need to clap when I agree with someone. I feel like that's dangerous to comedy when everyone I want to go into a room and have someone on stage go, Trump's awful, and everyone bursts into applause. Obviously, I agree, but who cares? Satire is a great way of making you go, Oh, God, can I laugh at that?You can laugh at anything, if there's a responsible, intelligent approach and that blows my mind because I think now were so scared to laugh at things because people want to be respectful, which is lovely, but if we can find a way to laugh at that, we all are, we're laughing at that behavior. We're not condoning it. We're also saying, Oh, I've maybe been this way, or I've thought this, or this person's way more extreme.When a white guy says, Its just my preference to date other white guys, its just a preference, its not racism. When you say that to in a room full of people and the audience groans, good! Groan, you should feel that ick, whereas sometimes, in real life, people say things like that, and internally, people groan or they say, Yeah, but they mean well.Can you tell me a bit about the casting process? Well, I wrote a part for myself, and that was the easiest part to cast. When I was writing the other characters, I didnt know who they were, but I had these characters in my mind.There is a chorus twink who's constantly on drugs and complaining that he can't get a job on Broadway because he's white. And so I had this role in my mind for someone in his 20s who was just clueless and when I did the reading in LA, the very first reading that I did in LA, I had my friend Pete Zias, hes the funniest person I know and when I wasnt sure about the play, I knew that he would make it funny. Well, two lines in, I knew that Pete had to play the part. It was funnier when it's this person who still thinks that he's a twink and feels that he's this party boy, and it's just that he has not grown up, which is very accurate in the gay community. So Pete has been with the show pretty much, almost from the beginning of its development.We did a workshop last summer at Vassar College and had my friend Aaron Jackson, who I've always been a massive fan of but never got to work with, came in and read the role of Caden, who is an heir and has all the money in the world who posts all the social media things, and maybe never been to a rally that says all the right things and always correcting people. So Aaron nailed it perfectly, and hes such a gifted actor and comedian who is able to play this character with such clarity that it's so funny and pointed in a beautiful way.Then we had our himbo influencer. We have had so many people who were great at reading that, but I've been a fan of Zane Phillips for a long time and loved his work. So we reached out and he could do it, and is interested in doing it, and he's fantastic. We had our central killer role, our alpha, the character Brecken, who has an OnlyFans and is a very key role because he is a sociopath, basically, and we just needed a really great actor. And so our casting director, Ryan Bernard Tymensky, suggested James Cusati-Moyer, whom I had seen in Slave Play and have been a huge fan of since then. He came in and read for it, and he was perfect for the role. When James came in and especially read with Aaron, because there was this couple, their chemistry was off the charts.Yesterday, we all got together for the first time and did a photo shoot, the first time the whole cast had been together, and immediately we gelled. Immediately, we're laughing, making jokes. It was so comfortable. Everyone got it right away. The cast was like, I read this and I just, I got what this is, and they just knew the tone. So we're really looking forward to the party with all these people.