THE PRINCESS AND THE PINUP

by Brent Alles

**NOW PUBLISHED BY NEXT STAGE PRESS!** (Full length play, two acts.) It's 1944 in Brooklyn, and while World War II rages overseas, back on the homefront, aspiring artist May Macy wants to break into the comic strip business. Her sister Ellen has a husband who's fighting in Europe. Ellen has a precocious 12-year-old son, Billy, who serves as May's latest inspiration. May's hoping her reporter friend Johnny Foster...

**NOW PUBLISHED BY NEXT STAGE PRESS!** (Full length play, two acts.) It's 1944 in Brooklyn, and while World War II rages overseas, back on the homefront, aspiring artist May Macy wants to break into the comic strip business. Her sister Ellen has a husband who's fighting in Europe. Ellen has a precocious 12-year-old son, Billy, who serves as May's latest inspiration. May's hoping her reporter friend Johnny Foster will be able to convince his boss Mr. Patson to give her comic strip a chance in his paper, the New York Daily Post. Then, one fateful day, aspiring pinup Betty Bump storms into May's life and changes everything.

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THE PRINCESS AND THE PINUP

Recommended by

  • Jonny Bolduc: THE PRINCESS AND THE PINUP by Brent Alles
    “

    Great, fully realized characters and a real charm imbuded in the show, this is an amazing love letter the the culture of the 1940's. Great work, a delight to read, and I would love to see this performed.

    Great, fully realized characters and a real charm imbuded in the show, this is an amazing love letter the the culture of the 1940's. Great work, a delight to read, and I would love to see this performed.

    ”
  • Daniel Prillaman: THE PRINCESS AND THE PINUP by Brent Alles
    “

    In a world where far too many WWII-set dramedies fail to delight, where characters fall into flat archetypes, where the trenches of tired tropes are trod, the wunderkind Brent Alles comes to our rescue! TPATP is a fun, progressive (without flinching away from the realities of the era), and moving romance filled with characters that are just infectious. Costume designers, too, will have the best time creating the comic strip characters that populate the scenes. Full of charm, with heart to match.

    In a world where far too many WWII-set dramedies fail to delight, where characters fall into flat archetypes, where the trenches of tired tropes are trod, the wunderkind Brent Alles comes to our rescue! TPATP is a fun, progressive (without flinching away from the realities of the era), and moving romance filled with characters that are just infectious. Costume designers, too, will have the best time creating the comic strip characters that populate the scenes. Full of charm, with heart to match.

    ”
  • Sam Heyman: THE PRINCESS AND THE PINUP by Brent Alles
    “

    Brent Alles wears his influences on his sleeve in this fantastic homage to 1940s American comics and culture. The Princess and the Pinup favorably calls to mind “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay” with its weaving of history, queerness, comic books, and the vital, aspirational project of being an artist. The Playwrights Thriving Reading Series was proud to present Alles’ work in its 2025 season of programming. I can’t wait to see the heights to which this play will soar.

    Brent Alles wears his influences on his sleeve in this fantastic homage to 1940s American comics and culture. The Princess and the Pinup favorably calls to mind “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay” with its weaving of history, queerness, comic books, and the vital, aspirational project of being an artist. The Playwrights Thriving Reading Series was proud to present Alles’ work in its 2025 season of programming. I can’t wait to see the heights to which this play will soar.

    ”
View all 9 recommendations

Character Information

  • MAY (TANQUE) MACY (also PRINCESS MAYSIE)
    26-year-old woman living on her own in NYC. She attended the prestigious Kirby Art Institute in Brooklyn, NY, working as a model to help pay her way through school as both her parents are deceased. She is now trying to break into the art world, and her latest foray is trying to make a successful newspaper comic strip. She is feisty and independent and yet sometimes unsure of what she really wants. In the “dream world” of the comic strips she draws (that is portrayed on stage from time to time), she is PRINCESS MAYSIE, a beautiful, kind, and surprisingly tough ruler of a fictional small European country named “Maysieland.”
    20's (written as 26 in the play)
    Any
    Cis female
    Can be played by:
    • Actor Age
      20s
    • Actor Gender Identity
      Woman
  • ELLEN (MACY) BARAVE (also EVIL ELLENA)
    May’s 34-year-old sister who is raising a young boy, Billy, while his father is away in the war. She is more conservative than May and worries about May living on her own. She also takes on the part of “EVIL ELLENA,” a haughty Eastern European villainess, in the “dream world” of the comic strips.
    30's (written as 34 in the play)
    Cis female
    Can be played by:
    • Actor Age
      30s
    • Actor Gender Identity
      Woman
  • BILLY BARAVE (also BILLY THE BOY WONDER)
    12-year-old son of Ellen and nephew of May. He provides inspiration to May to create a comic strip of “Billy the Wonder Boy” that she hopes will sell. He becomes that “BOY WONDER” in the “dream world” of the comic strips.
    12
    Assigned male at birth
    Can be played by:
    • Actor Age
      Child,
      Teens
    • Actor Gender Identity
      Man
  • JOHNNY FOSTER (also JOHANN KRAMER)
    32-year-old man who works in NYC as a reporter for the New York Daily Post. He tried to join the Army after Pearl Harbor but was ruled “4-F,” physically unfit for service. This eats at him and makes him feel like “less a man,” for which he tries to compensate by putting on a “manly” act all the time. He is perhaps slender but still wiry and muscular. He is friends with May but wants to be more than friends. He also takes on the role of the evil German “JOHANN KRAMER” in the dream world of the comic strips.
    30's (written as 32 in the play)
    Assigned male at birth
    Can be played by:
    • Actor Age
      30s
    • Actor Gender Identity
      Man
  • ROBERT PATSON (also THE IRON CLAW)
    Gruff 63-year-old publisher of the New York Daily Post, a tabloid newspaper. He becomes the villainous “IRON CLAW” in the dream world of the comic strips.
    60's (written as 63 in the play)
    Assigned male at birth
    Can be played by:
    • Actor Age
      60s
    • Actor Gender Identity
      Man
  • ELIZABETH "BETTY" BUMP (also MISS TYQUE)
    26-year-old woman who has come to the big city to be an actress but has not had much success so far. Her figure has led to her doing “artistic” work like she does for May. She is down to earth and rather libertine. She serves as the inspiration for “MISS TYQUE” and becomes her in the dream world of the comic strips that is depicted on stage.
    20's (written as 26 in the play)
    Cis female
    Can be played by:
    • Actor Age
      20s
    • Actor Gender Identity
      Woman

Development History

  • Reading, Playwrights Thriving, 2025
  • Reading, States of Play, 2024