“Matt McGrath doesn’t play Halston. He becomes him.”
Fashion icon, celebrity, visionary, narcissist, survivor and victim. In Raffaele Pacitti’s beautifully crafted Mister Halston, all of these versions of the legendary designer collide during a fictionalized 1987 interview that finds Halston confronting the life he built just as it begins slipping beyond his control.
At the center of this mesmerizing production is Matt McGrath, delivering one of the finest performances of the season. From the moment he enters, McGrath inhabits Halston with effortless sophistication, capturing both the swagger of a man who once ruled fashion and the fear of a man desperately trying to maintain control as his empire crumbles around him. At times he is almost Shakespearean—a Hamlet draped in cashmere and fame—projecting confidence while quietly unraveling beneath the surface.
As the interview unfolds, the audience watches a man desperately clinging to the mythology he created. The red telephone that punctuates the evening becomes almost a harbinger of doom, interrupting the conversation like a reminder that time is running out. Liza Minnelli worries. Lovers disappoint. Lawyers reveal uncomfortable truths. Halston continues performing Halston, even as the walls begin to close in.
What gives the play its emotional weight is the knowledge that hangs over every moment. Halston would die just a few years later at the age of 57 from complications related to AIDS. The audience carries that knowledge even when Halston refuses to fully acknowledge it himself. Every phone call, every memory, every attempt to control the narrative feels haunted by a future that is rapidly approaching. McGrath allows flashes of fear and vulnerability to emerge beneath Halston’s carefully constructed armor, revealing a man who understands far more than he is willing to admit.
McGrath’s achievement lies in his ability to reveal the contradictions that made Halston so fascinating. He is charismatic and infuriating. Brilliant and self-destructive. Vulnerable and fiercely guarded. The performance never asks us to excuse him, only to understand him. By the evening’s end, we are not simply watching a fashion designer. We are witnessing a man confronting his own mortality while refusing to surrender the spotlight.
What elevates Mister Halston beyond a biographical portrait is its vivid recreation of a cultural landscape that no longer exists. Through Halston’s recollections, the audience revisits a New York defined by glamour, excess, celebrity, artistic freedom, and reinvention. We encounter the world of Studio 54, the rise of celebrity culture, shifting conversations surrounding identity and sexuality, and the devastating shadow cast by the AIDS epidemic. Halston becomes both the man and the era itself—a symbol of a moment when New York believed anything was possible and paid a tremendous price for that freedom.
Director Michael Wilson, building upon the original direction by Kimberly Senior, creates a production that is both intimate and emotionally devastating. James Noone’s striking set design bathes Halston’s world in decadent shades of red, while David C. Woolard’s costumes, Mike Billings’ lighting and projections, and John Gromada’s evocative sound design create an atmosphere that feels simultaneously glamorous and haunted.
Produced in association with Tony Award-winning producer Bruce Robert Harris and Executive Producer Donna Karan, Mister Halston is more than a portrait of a designer. It is a quintessential New York story about ambition, reinvention, celebrity, excess, and the steep price of becoming a legend while still alive.
Most importantly, it belongs in New York.
If Bay Street is smart, this won’t be Halston’s final fitting.
Mister Halston: Bay Street Theatre, 1 Long Wharf, Sag Harbor, NY until June 21st
