RG Beefcake and Boyfriends: Aidan Close: Draco Malfoy's son strips down for his senior thesis, plays an incel and a Civil War soldier, wears a butterfly dress

What is Aidan Close wearing? A Kermit the Frog outfit that's too big, and sliding off him?

Don't you hate it when butterflies eat the back of your dress?

He wore the butterfly dress for the gala performance of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway, where he plays Scorpius Malfoy, Draco Malfoy's son. Emmet smith, right, plays Albus Potter, Harry's son.

Adrian: "I'm so happy the Sorting Hat brought us together."

Question #1: Are they dating?

Probably not. Neither post many off-stage photos together.

Question #2: Are they dating in the play?

A review says that their relationship is "intimate, sweet, and safe," but is it a friendship or a romance?

Not in the original two-part, multiple-hour play, which sends the two Hogwarts boys on a time-travel adventure: Each gets a girlfriend. It's Harry Potter, you can't say the g-word or the t-word.

But in the paired-down, 3 1/2 hour version more often produced, the girls are platonic pals, and the relationship becomes more or less gay-coded, depending on the director's staging.

Left: A hug. They may be a different Albus and Scorpious.

Left: Anthony Boyle, a previous Albus Potter, nude in The House of Guiness.

Question #3: Any gay characters?

Aidan graduated from Boston University in 2023.

His theatrical credits include:

Much Ado About Nothing. There's more or less gay subtext.

Incels and Other Myths, performed at the New York Theater Festival (2023): A teenage boy (Aidan) into online gaming gets pulled into the misogynistic incel subculture.

More after the break

Just a Gig: A woman returns from school to find her mother consorting with a male prostitute (Henry Sirota). It may be a take on the song "Just a Gigolo." Aidan's role isn't mentioned.

Left: Aidan's senior acting thesis required him to strip down.

Most of his on-screen credits have no plot descriptions:

The short You (2020) with only two actors, Aidan and Henry Sirota.

The short Move Me (2021), written and directed by Bishop Be, who has no other internet presence.

Fairy God Brothers (2021): A black student at an all-white school struggles to find her place. Aidan plays "Pike Guy"

A "Soldier" in The School Duel (2024), with Kue Lawrence as a bullied kid permitted to fight to the death with his bully. about a future society where bullied kids are allowed to shoot the bullies (maybe it's a documentary).

"Kid in Crowd" in A Complete Unknown (2024), with Timothee Chalamet (the gay teenager in Call Me By Your Name) as the "complete unknown" who would become singer Bob Dylan.

A starring role in the upcoming Red Badge of Courage, based on Stephen Crane's novel about a Civil War soldier -- assigned in English class when I was in junior high.

Aidan plays focus character Henry Fleming. In the original novel he has a buddy, Jim Conklin, who dies (of course: in the novels assigned in English class, a parent, friend, or pet always dies). But there's no Jim Conklin in the cast list. There's a Jimmie Rogers, but he's played by 56-year old Vince Eisenson, unlikely to be Henry's buddy.