Things to do in New York this Saturday

The Phantom of the Opera ended its 35-year Broadway run in 2023, but you can't keep a masked man down for long. The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical—adapted by the composer and Richard Stilgoe from Gaston Leroux's 1910 horror novel, and featuring lyrics mostly by Charles Hart—is already somehow here again, and in a surprising new form: an immersive experience, à la Sleep No More, in which audiences are led en masque through multiple locations in a complex designed to evoke the 19th-century Paris Opera House where soprano Christine Daaé is tutored and stalked by a serial killer who lives in the basement. Six groups of 60 spectators at a time enter at staggered 15-minute intervals; each group gets its own Phantom and Christine, but the other roles are played by one to four actors each; to help sustain the atmosphere, audience members must wear black, white or silver cocktail or formal attire—and, hopefully, comfortable shoes. (Masks are provided for those who do not bring their own.) Don't expect the same old Phantom: This version has been heavily streamlined and rearranged to fit its new form, and material about the Phantom's history has been added. Director Diane Paulus (Pippin), who kick-started the immersive-theater trend with 1999's The Donkey Show, oversees an extremely complicated system of simultaneous performances. The cast includes Hugh Panaro, Jeff Kready, Telly Leung, Nik Walker, Kyle Scatliffe, Clay Singer, Kaley Ann Voorhees, Anna Zavelson, Betsy Morgan, Raymond J....

The British conjurer Jamie Allan (iMagician), a Houdini aficionado who has made his reputation by infusing newfangled technology and emotionally charged storyelling into old-school tricks, appears at New World Stages for a limited run. This latest showcase is directed by Jonathan Goodwin and co-created with Allan's longtime partner in illusions, Tommy Bond.    

Luke Newton (Bridgerton) plays the highly theatrical British fashion designer Alexander McQueen and Broadway vet Emily Skinner plays his mother—whose death preceded his suicide by a week—in a new bioplay by Darrah Cloud. Director Sam Helfrich's staging employs a thousand square feet of LED screens, along with more than a dozen performers, to create an immersive experience at a new performance space in Hudson Yards. Fashion queens may also appreciate a display of archival McQueen designs. 

Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More gave up the ghost last fall after 14 years, but fans of that immersive theatrical experience have a new show to tide them over: a smaller-scale work by Punchdrunk founder Felix Barrett that invites audience members to move barefoot through a labyrinthine installation inspired by Barry Pain’s 1901 gothic short story “The Moon-Slave," as adapted by the acclaimed British writer Daisy Johnson. Participants wear headphones and are guided through the 50-minute experience at the Shed via narration in the voice of Helena Bonham Carter. 

The boundary-busting comedian Natalie Palamides loves a high concept: She dressed as an egg for her first solo show, Laid, and donned hirsute dudebro drag for her astonishing follow-up, the toxic-masculinity lampoon Nate (which was filmed for a 2020 Netflix special). In Weer, which was a hit in Edinburgh last year, she takes he-said-she-said comedy to new extremes: Dividing herself down the middle through makeup and costume, she simultaneously plays both parts of the kind of young couple you might find in a 1990s romcom. The cherry on top: This production marks the official reopening of the Cherry Lane Theatre, a century-old Off Broadway landmark that has been closed for renovation since it was purchased by the film studio A24 in 2023. 

Theatre for a New Audience presents Henrik Ibsen's 1884 social drama, which, like Chekhov's The Seagull, investigates the links among family discord, suicidal young people and symbolic waterfowl. Simon Godwin—of Washington D.C.'s Shakespeare Theatre Company, which is coproducing the show—directs the first Off Broadway revival of the show to employ David Eldridge's new adaptation of the script. Leading the cast are Robert Stanton, Alex Hurt, Nick Westrate, Melanie Field, Maaike Laanstra-Corn and David Patrick Kelly. 

For 35 years, the comic actor John Leguizamo has played himself—and many colorful side characters to boot—in dynamic solo shows ranging from Mambo Mouth and Spic-O-Rama to Freak, Sexaholix and Latin History for Morons. This time, however, he is surrounding himself with other actors in an old-school ensemble drama about a family waking up from the American Dream. Leguizamo stars as a Latino laundromat owner in 1990s Queens who must own up to old secrets when his mentally unwell son returns to the fold. Ruben Santiago-Hudson directs the NYC premiere at the Public; the mostly three-named cast includes Luna Lauren Velez, Rosa Evangelina Arredondo, Sarah Nina Hayon, Bradley James Tejeda, Rebecca Jimenez and, as the wayward son, the director's own son Trey Santiago-Hudson. 

Broadway review by Adam Feldman  [Note: Jinkx Monsoon plays the role of Mary Todd Lincoln through September 30, joined by new cast members Kumail Nanjiani, Michael Urie and Jenn Harris. Jane Krakowski assumes the central role on October 14.] Cole Escola’s Oh, Mary! is not just funny: It is dizzyingly, breathtakingly funny, the kind of funny that ambushes your body into uncontained laughter. Stage comedies have become an endangered species in recent decades, and when they do pop up they tend to be the kind of funny that evokes smirks, chuckles or wry smiles of recognition. Not so here: I can’t remember the last time I saw a play that made me laugh, helplessly and loudly, as much as Oh, Mary! did—and my reaction was shared by the rest of the audience, which burst into applause at the end of every scene. Fasten your seatbelts: This 80-minute show is a fast and wild joy ride. Escola has earned a cult reputation as a sly comedic genius in their dazzling solo performances (Help! I’m Stuck!) and on TV shows like At Home with Amy Sedaris, Difficult People and Search Party. But Oh, Mary!, their first full-length play, may surprise even longtime fans. In this hilariously anachronistic historical burlesque, Escola plays—who else?—Mary Todd Lincoln, in the weeks leading up to her husband’s assassination. Boozy, vicious and miserable, the unstable and outrageously contrary Mary is oblivious to the Civil War and hell-bent on achieving stardom as—what else?—a cabaret singer.      Oh,...

The queer Salvadoran-American comedian Julio Torres has one of the country's most distinctive sensibilities, as he has proved as the auteur and star of Los Espookys, Fantasmas and Problemista. His 2019 HBO special My Favorite Shapes found him musing about physical forms; in this new multimedia stage show, he hews to hues. 

A widow gets swept off her feet by her attractive ballroom dance instructor, to the displeasure of her adult daughter, in a new comedy by Candace H. Caplin and Kim St. Leon. The possibly ill-intentioned younger man is played by Caplin's actual partner on the competitive dance circuit, Ronny Dutra, who also choreographs the show and co-directs it with St. Leon. The additional cast includes Sarah Hogewood, Jason Kennedy and eight dancers. Jesse Corbin contributes original music and songs.