A GAY MASSEUR'S GUIDE TO HAPPY ENDINGS to Premiere at Edinburgh Fringe
Austin Jennings' one-man show, directed by Joe DeStefano, will play Greenside @ George Street.
A Gay Masseur's Guide to Happy Endings, a new audacious one-man show by award-winning actor and playwright Austin Jennings, will premiere from 7-22 August 2026 at Greenside @ George Street, Edinburgh.
Directed by Joe DeStefano and produced by Anna Koppelman and Sophia Englesberg, the play sees AJ fresh out of drama school, desperate for money and a good role when he takes up gay massage.
A decade later, still on the job, he finds himself trapped with two rich Connecticut daddies. There, he begins to question what all this performance has really gotten him. There unfolds an interwoven narrative as funny as it is daring. Shame, desire, loneliness, and addiction blur the lines between intimacy and transaction, culminating in a high-stakes session that asks not only what it means to perform, but what it takes to stop.
The show also includes sharp social commentary about the men he encounters and on how he navigates various platforms to accept the clients he wants to work with, and those he seeks to avoid.
Following an acclaimed Provincetown workshop in 2025, A Gay Masseur's Guide to Happy Endings will bring its electric spirit to Edinburgh Fringe.
"It's a story about longing: for safety, validation, meaning and the quiet fear that without being wanted, we might disappear," commented Austin, who, at one point in the show, is fully naked.
The show has already attracted a strong following. It received its first reading at Bill Arning Exhibitions in Kinderhook, New York, where it was praised for its biting humor and unflinching honesty. Subsequent workshops took place at Provincetown's Red Room and Off-Off Broadway at NYC's Chain Theatre. The show returns to Provincetown for Bear Week before heading to Edinburgh.
The reaction from NYC audiences has been extremely favourable. Comments include: 'Anyone can tell a great story. But only a true talent can tell a story that makes you think deeper and appreciate the person' and 'It was easy for us to objectify you, but as you added deeper elements, it allowed me to go into a deeper humanity with you.'
Austin, who trained at the William Esper Studio and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, has built a range of theatre and TV credits, including Fleishman Is in Trouble (FX), FBI: Most Wanted (CBS), The Gilded Age (HBO), and Hunters (Amazon). While rooted in personal experience, the piece is a work of fiction, with characters and events fictionalized for the stage.
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