''Halston'' is an American

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curric ...

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

television miniseries based on the life of designer

Halston Roy Halston Frowick (April 23, 1932 – March 26, 1990), known mononymously as Halston, was an American fashion designer, who rose to international fame in the 1970s. Halston's minimalist, clean designs, which were often made of cashmere or ...

, starring

Ewan McGregor Ewan Gordon McGregor ( ; born 31 March 1971) is a Scottish actor. His accolades include a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. In 2013, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to drama and ...

. Adapted from the 1991 book ''Simply Halston'' by

Steven Gaines Steven Gaines (born 1946) is an American author, journalist, and radio show host. His books include ''Philistines at the Hedgerow: Passion and Property in the Hamptons'', '' The Love You Make: An Insider's Story of The Beatles'', '' Heroes and Vi ...

, the series was ordered by

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

in September 2019 and premiered on May 14, 2021.

Cast and characters

Main

Rebecca Dayan Rebecca Dayan (; born 17 April 1984, is a French actress, model, artist, and activist. After training in fine arts, Dayan began her career in fashion and theatre in Paris. She then moved to New York City where she took up screen acting. Followin ...

as Elsa Peretti * David Pittu as Joe Eula * Krysta Rodriguez as

Liza Minnelli Liza May Minnelli ( ; born March 12, 1946) is an American actress, singer, and dancer. Known for her commanding stage presence and powerful alto singing voice, Minnelli has received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, ...

Bill Pullman William Pullman (born December 17, 1953) is an American actor. After graduating with a Master of Fine Arts degree in theater, he was an adjunct professor at Montana State University before deciding to pursue acting. Pullman made his film debut i ...

as David J. Mahoney

Supporting

* Rory Culkin as

Joel Schumacher Joel T. Schumacher (; August 29, 1939 – June 22, 2020) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Raised in New York City by his mother, Schumacher graduated from Parsons School of Design and originally became a fashion designe ...

* James Riordan as Henry Bisset * Sullivan Jones as Ed Austin *

Kelly Bishop Kelly Bishop (born Carole Jane Bishop; on February 28, 1944) is an American actress and dancer, best known for her roles as matriarch Emily Gilmore on the series ''Gilmore Girls'' and as Marjorie Houseman, the mother of Jennifer Grey's Frances " ...

Eleanor Lambert Eleanor Lambert (August 10, 1903 – October 7, 2003) was an American fashion publicist. She was instrumental in increasing the international prominence of the American fashion industry and in the emergence of New York City as a major fashion c ...

* Gian Franco Rodriguez as

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...

* Dilone as Pat Cleveland *

Vera Farmiga Vera Ann Farmiga ( ; born August 6, 1973) is an American actress. Farmiga began her professional acting career on stage in the original Broadway production of '' Taking Sides'' (1996). After expanding to television and film, her breakthrough ...

as Adele * James Waterston as Mike *

Jason Kravits Jason Kravits (born May 28, 1967) is an American character actor. He is best known for portraying A.D.A. Richard Bay on ABC's ''The Practice.'' Early life and education Kravits was born on May 28, 1967, in Passaic, New Jersey. In 1975, his fami ...

as Carl Epstein * Mary Beth Peil as

Martha Graham Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American modern dancer, teacher and choreographer, whose style, the Graham technique, reshaped the dance world and is still taught in academies worldwide. Graham danced and taught for over s ...

* Molly Jobe as Sassy Johnson * Shawna Hamic as Pat Ast * Maxim Swinton as Young Roy Halston * Sietzka Rose as Karen Bjornson * Jack Mikesell as John David Ridge * Shannan Wilson as Bobbi Mahoney

Episodes

Production

Development

In January 2019, it was announced that Legendary Television and Killer Films had put in development ''Simply Halston'', a miniseries based on the life of Halston that would be based on the book of the same name by

, with

set to star as Halston and the series to be written by Sharr White and directed by

Daniel Minahan Daniel Minahan (born 1962) is an American television director and Filmmaking, filmmaker. Career Minahan has directed several episodes of the HBO original series ''Six Feet Under (TV series), Six Feet Under'', ''Deadwood (TV series), Deadwood'', ...

. In September 2019, Ryan Murphy revealed to ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' that he had signed onto ''Halston'' as an executive producer and that the series had been ordered by

under his overall deal at the company. The series premiered on May 14, 2021.

Casting

On February 18, 2020, Murphy announced on a since deleted

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

post that in addition to McGregor starring, other cast members of ''Halston'' included Krysta Rodriguez as

, Rory Culkin as

as Elsa Peretti, Sullivan Jones as Ed Austin, David Pittu as Joe Eula, Gian Franco Rodriguez as

, and Maxim Swinton as Young Roy Halston.

Reception

For the limited series, review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reported an approval rating of 67% based on 54 critic reviews, with an average rating of 6.30/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Ewan McGregor brings megawatt charisma to match ''Halston'' vibrant recreation of a fashion era, but the series' glib treatment of the legendary designer's interior life yields a lot of style with little substance."

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

gave the series a weighted average score of 50 out of 100 based on 20 critic reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Accolades

References

External links

* * {{Netflix original ended series (2019–present) 2020s American drama television miniseries 2020s American LGBTQ-related drama television series 2021 American television series debuts 2021 American television series endings American biographical series Cultural depictions of fashion designers American English-language television shows Netflix television dramas Fashion-themed television series Gay-related television shows Television series set in the 1960s Television series set in the 1970s Television series set in the 1980s Television shows based on books Television shows set in New York City 2021 LGBTQ-related television