Christine Baranski, Tituss Burgess, André De Shields, Andrew Rannells, and Cecily Strong will star in a new Audible Original play Cruising, releasing June 5 as a podcast. Tony nominee Robert O'Hara directs Michael Shayan's comedy.
Cruising follows Max, a messy queen with writer's block, a pie addiction, and a kink for self-sabotage, and he's having a "relapse summer." Feeling trapped and miserable in a filthy Encino apartment, he escapes into an intoxicating gay cruise. As his ship sets sail, his characters take on lives of their own, and Max’s reality capsizes, forcing him to confront the demons he so desperately wants to outrun.
Burgess will star as Max, joined by the characters in his imagination, with Baranski as a Broadway diva on a blackout bender, De Shields as a recovering self-help guru who doesn't practice what he preaches, Strong as a dazzling cruise director, and Rannells as Baranski's manager.
The ensemble will include comedy duo Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson, Tomas Matos, Marcus Raye Perez, and Nicholas Polonio.
Playwright Shayan—an Emmy nominee and OUT100 honoree—has drawn on his personal experiences and humor to dissect the American culture of addiction, dopamine hits, and doomscrolling. "They say addiction is cunning, baffling, powerful. I think it’s that voice we all have in our heads that says ‘text your ex!� or ‘one more drink!’—and then laughs at you for giving in," says Shayan in a statement. "These Broadway legends voice our chaotic impulses and carry us to shore."
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