THE GREATEST SHOWMAN

JEREMY O. HARRIS is a playwright, producer, performer, provocateur, dandy, bon vivant, and depending who you ask, a genius. As his latest wave of projects gains momentum, CHRIS MURPHY asks, can Harris keep all the plates spinning?

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JEREMY O. HARRIS seems to be everywhere, but he's not at our agreed upon location at the agreed upon time. We're supposed to meet at Dimes Deli in Manhattan at 4:30 p.m.; when he gets there around 5:15, he's apologetic but easy and breezy in a white Bode button-up and jeans. Harris is undeniably striking: six feet five, long-limbed and lean, with a mane of black hair and an almost tangible magnetism.

"I haven't eaten all day. I've been running around since 8 a.m.," Harris declares. Soon enough, we're sharing togarashi potato wedges and splitting a bottle of orange wine. It's one of Harris's last meals before he heads up to the Williamstown Theatre Festival, a storied event that started in 1954, where he'll serve as this year's creative director. Meanwhile, reviews for his latest producing venture have just come in, and they are overwhelmingly positive—Prince Faggot is a New York Times critic's pick. The off-Broadway play by Jordan Tannahill imagines a grownup Prince George as a kink-loving gay royal and is such a hit that it's transferring to a bigger off-Broadway theater, Studio Seaview, this fall, with eyes on a spring 2026 transfer to Broadway. Some creatives won't admit to reading reviews; Harris is not among them. He is going through each one, he tells me, "and picking out my pull quotes."

If Prince Faggot makes it to Broadway, Harris won't be a stranger. His first production, Slave Play, premiered off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop in 2018 before transferring to the Golden Theatre on October 6, 2019. It went on to nab a record 12 Tony nominations, becoming a controversial phenomenon that launched Harris to fame before he even graduated from the Yale School of Drama.

"There's nothing more insane than having other people tell you you're famous when you literally are still counting how much money is in your bank account before you go to dinner," Harris says now.