Interview: Bridgerton Star Luke Newton on Returning to the Stage in House of McQueen and Why Theater Is His Safe Space

Luke Newton has won the hearts of millions as Colin Bridgerton, but will face a wholly different challenge when he stars in Darrah Cloud’s House of McQueen off-Broadway at The Mansion at Hudson Yards beginning August 19.

Directed by Sam Helfrich, the production casts Newton as Lee Alexander McQueen himself, tracing the designer’s journey from young upstart to the creator of one of the world’s most influential fashion houses, ending ultimately with his passing in 2010. This immersive staging will surround audiences with cinematic floor-to-ceiling LED screens, bringing McQueen’s theatrical world to life.

Here, Newton discusses stepping into McQueen’s shoes, what drew him to the role, and how it feels to trade the mansions of Bridgerton for the catwalks of couture.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

How’s it going so far?
It’s going really well. We started tech yesterday. It was the first day in the theater, and we’re in a brand-new space. They’re creating this theater from the ground up.

I was saying to the team, it’s hard enough to put a show on in a theater that’s already established, and now we’re figuring it all out together. At the same time, it only benefits us because it’s kind of like a blank canvas, and we can create whatever we want within that space.

That must be cool and also terrifying to know you’re leading the charge in this new theater.
It really is. And I’ve never worked in theater in New York, so I’m still figuring out the differences and how everything works. But I’m just loving every minute, to be honest. Yesterday, we got through a chunk of the play, and it always blows my mind, no matter how many times I do it, how much a piece can change as soon as you put it on stage and see everyone in their costumes for the first time. Everything is coming to life.

How did you come to be involved with House of McQueen?
It appeared in my inbox one afternoon. I had a very clear vision that once I’d wrapped season four of Bridgerton, I wanted to go back to theater. It feels like a safe space for me, but it also challenges me and gets me out of that routine.

I immediately messaged my team being like, “Is this real? How far along is it?” Because these things come up all the time and you never know if it’s ready to go. The more I learned about it, the fact that our producer has been planning this for the best part of 10 years, I immediately was like, “I want to jump on a call.” I could see the passion and vision and there was no element of insecurity.

I wrapped season four, and then I was doing some reshoots on a movie, and then I had a good four weeks of prep time, and I was able to get a little holiday in, so it all slotted in perfectly. And to be honest, as a young actor training in musical-theater in London, my dream was to be in New York working in theater. When this opportunity came up, it was a no-brainer.

What is it like for you to have gone from musical-theater kid to TV heartthrob now, and how does it relate to the play?
It’s interesting. I’ve been thinking about how it’s so hard to put all the stages of Lee McQueen’s life into a piece of theater, because it’s like he lived nine lives. I’ve always referred to myself like that, because of the different parts of the industry that I’ve experimented with.

TV came from doing an amateur theater production in Brighton. An agent came to see me and said “I’d love to send you for a TV audition on Friday if you’re up for it.” I hadn’t even considered TV at this point; I was 17 years old at the time. I went in and booked the job, and I found my love for TV and film acting. After that, I went back to musical-theater training, and I explored music. Stepping back and looking at all the different experiences Lee had, I’m like “Wow, he had nine lives. I’ve had three or four.”

Tell me about your preparation for playing Lee and his sort of public and private lives that the play describes?
We focus more on the private life and his interactions with people that we haven’t seen in the media, which was something that really drew me in. I didn’t want to do a version of Lee that everyone has seen, the version of him doing an interview during a fitting or on the runway. I wanted to find the human side of him, the side that many of us will connect with.

It feels like a bit of a juggling act, trying to find my version of Lee. I’m very aware that it’s on stage, so if I focus on the subtleties of Lee, like I would do if I portrayed him in film, it won’t read. There was lots or preparation that I did on my own, and eventually, I had to let go of all the outside noise and focus on the story that we have within the script, which is a version of what happened in Lee McQueen’s life.

Do you see any similarities between your Bridgerton role and this one?
I feel like, for the first time in a long time, there aren’t many similarities, and that’s the thing that I’m enjoying the most. We’re coming up to six years of Bridgerton, and I’m diving into something that feels completely different.

It’s funny, I always think about the differences between working in film, or in Bridgerton, and in theater. I was discussing it with [costar] Emily Skinner yesterday; tech week is something we would never have on screen. The stops and starts of it, the whole process of that, I found it so valuable, because I’m figuring out all those transitions.

This piece is particularly tricky for my character because we jump back and forth in time, through different moments in his life. The emotional stakes shift within a second but slowing things down in tech has really helped me figure out those transitions and make tweaks. It’s all just piecing the puzzle together.

Listen to the full interview here: