Immersive Theater in NYC

British theater troupe Punchdrunk is behind the immersive theater sensation Sleep No More, which has had productions in London, New York City, Boston, and Shanghai. It is inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth told through a spooky film noir lens with influences from Alfred Hitchcock, taking place in three hulking warehouse spaces. The site-specific experience requires that each audience member check in at the McKittrick Hotel in Chelsea, Manhattan and wear a white Venetian style mask to distinguish them from the performers. Your journey through the world is dictated entirely by you as you follow around characters like Lady Macbeth for as long as you please, with the ability to start following a different actor at any time through their, often wordless, scenes. A New York Times review described some of the actions of various characters as, “getting dressed and undressed, doing the foxtrot, making every kind of love, killing one another and washing off blood.”

Sleep No More won the 2011 Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience and special citations at the 2011 Obie Awards for design and choreography. It has been running for thirteen years in New York City and recently announced its final extension through September 29th of this year. The Associated Press credits Punchdrunk as providing “a blueprint for more immersive experiences in the city” with their production of Sleep No More. The British theater troupe was called “Hands down the best immersive company in the world” by Time Out.

If you would like to have your own unique experience at Sleep No More before it leaves New York, there is no time to waste. Book your reservations for its final weeks in New York before it's gone forever.

Similar to Sleep No More in that it also takes place outside of a traditional theater, requires audience members to wear a distinctive mask, and offers multiple floors to explore as you follow various characters through their wordless scenes, Emursive Productions, also involved with the production of Sleep No More, presents Life And Trust. After purchasing your tickets, you will head down to the Financial District in downtown New York City to Conwell Tower at 69 Beaver Street to the Life And Trust Bank. You will go up the stairs to an elegant bar area where you can order drinks if you like before heading into the experience. You will be told that the old man who owns the bank is expecting you in his office and, when he makes one last deal with a magician, you will be sucked into the past. Before you can you will be offered a mask, told if you want to observe the illusion that you must first become one. 

In this immersive experience, it is as if you are observing someone else's memories and following phantoms of the past. The wordless scenes are made up of graceful, stunning movement pieces much like they are in Sleep No More. The elaborate set design spans across several floors ranging from a grand ballroom to a bedroom to the vault of the bank to a fairground. There are moments that seem to be intended to bring a large group of the audience together at the same time when a number of characters come together in spaces like the ballroom. 

If you are ever in need of assistance throughout the experience, there are individuals that will be in gold masks that will stand apart from your black mask to assist. Wearing comfortable shoes would be in your best interest since you will be doing a lot of walking in your time there and will often find yourself bounding up and down stairs to follow the characters you’re most fascinated with. This experience is sure to be unique to each individual audience member since they are very much in control of their journey through the story.

If you would like to visit the Life And Trust bank to “seize your destiny” in a “tale of money, sex, and power” as their website declares, you can purchase your tickets using the button below.

When you search “immersive” in the New York Theatre Guide, one of the results you will come across is Odd Man Out which is running at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture in the heart of Noho. This particular immersive show focuses on the sensory experience of its audience, as they relive the life of an aging musician, Alberto, who happens to be blind. Unlike the previous two productions, which are largely based on having autonomy in an elaborately designed space, this immersive experience is about the senses and giving yourself over to a more guided experience.

This piece implements what is known as the Pitchblack Theater Technique, a practice which was first developed by a group of blind and sighted artists in Argentina. It has since spread across the globe, making its way to New York City’s immersive theater scene. Put in total darkness, the audience is invited to discover what they see with their other senses of sound, smell, taste, and touch created by special effects and actors that will surround them.

They also offer performances in Spanish on Saturdays at 2pm, Odd Man Out Español. The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture offers reduced general admission tickets, student & senior discounts, and a VIP admission option aside from the general admission ticket price. If you’d like to catch this immersive sensory experience before it closes on August 11th of this year, you may purchase your tickets and get more information on the show here. 

Drunk Shakespeare is vastly different from the aforementioned immersive experiences in New York is that one of its highlighted features is a real breaking of the fourth wall between the audience and actors, instead of the audience being silent participants in a world or experience. Each night five actors will put on one of Shakespeare’s plays, always different from what they did the night before, with a twist: one of the actors will be drunk. Drunk Shakespeare has been performed in various cities and venues, but each one is designed to look like an old library. 

The audience sits at tables where they can order food and, of course, drinks. Before the show begins, five shots will be brought out. The designated actor to get drunk will first do a shot with a volunteer from the audience to certify that it is, in fact, alcohol and then proceed to take the other three before taking on the bard’s word. The four remaining actors stay sober and do what they can to keep the play on track. The audience is often interacted with and improv is often implemented, no performance is quite the same with all the variables at play. The comedy will be found in even Shakespeare’s darkest tragedies at Drunk Shakespeare.

If you’d like even more power, you can opt to seize the throne! You and a friend will be given regal crowns to wear, a bottle of Moet & Chandon champagne, fine caviar, handmade chocolates, two signature cocktails, and decision-making powers with commands like “Off with his head!” or “Pardon the fool!” throughout the play. You can purchase your throne and all this for $500 before the show or, if no one has purchased it for the night, participate in a bidding war before the show for it.

As long as you are 21+ and don’t mind vulgarity, sexual humor, strong language, and audience interaction, you can purchase your night of laughs and liquored fun.

For those who enjoy role playing games it may come as no surprise that immersive theater offers a great stage for a live version of them whether that be through murder mystery productions or a show like Dungeons and Dragons Twenty-Sided Tavern. Like many of the shows listed above, it is never the same show twice. Audience members are active participants in an adventure plot, being asked to conduct dice rolls, make decisions, solve puzzles and more either by joining the actors/heroes on stage or from their seats. 

Even when purchasing tickets online, you will be given the opportunity to choose story mode, a traditional path, or a roll for initiative, which puts you in the world of the tavern before you’ve even booked. You also have the option to try your luck at rush tickets the day of the performance at the Stage 42 box office located at 422 W 42nd St in New York City. Outside of the theater, you have the ability to join the Twenty-Sided Tavern Discord community.

Bring your Dungeon and Dragons game to life with live actors, and purchase your tickets!

Last but not least on our list of immersive shows currently running in New York City is the Tony Award winning revival of Cabaret on Broadway. The production crossed the pond from the London theatre scene and landed in the August Wilson Theatre, where the production team has worked to make audience members feel like they are in the Kit Kat Club in Berlin. An article in Associated Press describes the atmosphere of the show as, “welcom[ing] the guests with neon-lit hallways leading to a vibrant, reimagined Kit Kat Club. The production centers on a round stage with audience members on all sides, no sets and few props, which [Bebe Neuwirth} says puts the focus on the iconic story and music."

The production offers the option of more immersive cabaret table seating near the stage or more traditional theater seating farther away. Regardless, the aim of the artistic team is to immerse audience members in the 1930s world of Cabaret. A trailer of the show can be found here. You may also get more information on the Cabaret website.