Downtown drag icon Joey Arias is the magnetic center of Arias with a Twist, while puppet master creator Basil Twist surrounds him with a visual world that is eye-popping.
Nearly two decades after its downtown debut, Joey Arias and Basil Twist’s Arias with a Twist returns with its fusion of cabaret, puppetry, music, and performance art fully intact. Arias remains the show’s magnetic center, while Twist surrounds him with a visual world that proves this exuberant collaboration has lost none of its capacity to surprise.
The show wraps up with a grand Busby Berkeley-style finale featuring a colossal cake with Arias atop singing “You Gotta Pull Strings” from The Great Ziegfeld (1936).
Co-created by downtown drag icon Arias and MacArthur Fellow Twist, and directed by Twist, the show begins with a rogue spotlight shining on the red velvet curtain in the intimate Dorothy B. Williams Theatre. But instead of immediately parting to pull us into the show, the drape reveals another curtain behind it, then another, and more beyond that. Although at first blush this might seem like nothing more than a gimmick, it suggests what the show itself can be: a cat-and-mouse game, with its singular star strategically—and teasingly—hiding from the audience.
Nearly two decades after its downtown debut, Joey Arias and Basil Twist’s Arias with a Twist returns with its fusion of cabaret, puppetry, music, and performance art intact. Arias remains the show’s magnetic center, while Twist surrounds him with a visual world that proves that this exuberant collaboration has lost none of its capacity to surprise.
Co-created by downtown drag icon Arias and Twist, and directed by Twist, a MacArthur Fellow, the show begins with a rogue spotlight shining on a red velvet curtain in the intimate basement space at HERE. But instead of immediately parting to pull us into the show, the drape reveals another curtain behind it, then another, and more beyond that. Although at first blush this might seem like nothing more than a gimmick, it suggests what the show itself can be: a cat-and-mouse game, with its singular star strategically—and teasingly—hiding from the audience.
In one sequence, Arias's character ingests a magical, sparkling mushroom, and as the psychedelic trip takes hold, Twist uses his signature artistry to make multiple pairs of waving arms seamlessly sprout from Arias’s side.
When the curtain finally rises on the action, the Dream Music orchestra appears. First seen is a miniature puppet blowing a trumpet, soon joined by similarly sized puppet-musicians who play drums, grand piano, and bass. These historic puppets, 100 years old, were inherited from Twist’s maternal grandfather, big–band leader Griff Williams. Their music wafts through the air, creating a supper-club atmosphere.
But the tranquility is soon interrupted by a disembodied voice announcing that one is about to meet the “unknown she,” who, “in the alphabet soup of human DNA, the X/Y chromosome, she is the Z, the last of the alphabet! So Z is what you get tonight.”
The introduction of this mysterious “she” gives way to a surreal journey into outer space, accompanied by spaceship sounds and the appearance of a spacecraft. Just as one begins to adjust to this shift in reality, Arias, in full drag, replete with nylon stockings and a barely-there bikini, appears strapped to an alien-probe table that dizzily spins. A beat later, the aliens begin probing him as he sings the soul-stirring lyrics of Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir.”
“The songs, all performed live by Arias, add oomph to the spectacle. ”
This kooky episode only gets kookier. Yet it somehow serves the show’s loose, hallucinatory narrative, which zigzags from outer space to unexpected points on planet Earth: Arias is abducted by aliens and drops a magic mushroom in an Amazonian-like jungle, takes a detour to hell, and finally navigates a shimmering New York City before ending up in a classic cabaret performance.
The show’s undeniable charm comes not only from the exquisite dreamscapes created by visual designer Twist, but also from its playful evocation of retro pop-culture tropes, Hollywood glitz, and the Golden Age of Cinema. There’s even a wacky newsreel sketch reporting on the return of “Astounding She-Monster Joey Arias teaming up with the Master Svengali Basil Twist” and the fans “clamoring past police barricades around the theater to see their sensational stagings.” Add to this bonkers scene testimonials from giants of the entertainment world, and the result is theatrical magic. Or, as the trailblazing Mae West puts it in her sound bite: “Like I was saying to ya, Joey, there are no good girls gone wrong, only bad girls found out, and a man in the house is worth two in the street. … so I’ll see you at the Dorothy B. Williams Theater.”
After surreally landing in an Amazon-like rain forest, Arias sings Alex Gifford’s “Jungle of Eden,” a song celebrating how life began. Photographs by Richard Termine.
The songs, all performed live by Arias, add oomph to the spectacle. Whether it’s the aforementioned performance of “Kashmir,” the psychedelic recording of the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” during Arias’s acid trip, or his very moving rendering of Eric Carmen’s “All by Myself” when the diva realizes that being a party girl isn’t much fun once the party’s over, the songs terrifically buoy and complement the production’s visual poetry. And once Arias has completed his surreal journey and arrives back in New York City just in time to take the stage for his nightclub act, he throatily croons Billie Holiday’s “You’ve Changed,” wearing a white gardenia on his gown as a tribute to his vocal muse. The performance not only poignantly ends the wild psychedelic puppet odyssey but also serves as an anchor for the entire production.
The show wraps up with a grand Busby Berkeley–style finale featuring a colossal cake, with Arias singing “You Gotta Pull Strings” from The Great Ziegfeld. Here, Twist’s intricate puppetry truly comes alive, culminating in an astonishing, kaleidoscopic sequence spoofing a Ziegfeld Follies kick line, with a myriad of legs rhythmically dancing atop a rotating wedding cake.
There is no deep or hidden moral message behind Arias with a Twist. But there is something truly affectionate at its heart: a love letter to the resilient avant-garde spirit of New York City.
Arias with a Twist plays at the HERE Arts Center (145 Sixth Ave.) through Nov. 1. Evening performances are at 7 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday; matinees are at 4 p.m. Sundays. For tickets and information, visit here.org.
Playwrights: Joey Arias & Basil Twist
Director: Basil Twist
Lighting Design: Ayumu “Poe” Saegusa
Costume Design: Manfred Thierry Mugler
Sound Design: Greg Duffin
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