{"id":354725,"date":"2026-09-23T16:04:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T16:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/354725\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T16:04:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T16:04:18","slug":"arias-with-a-twist-returns-to-here-arts-center-18-years-after-original-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/354725\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Arias With a Twist\u2019 returns to HERE Arts Center 18 years after original debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cFabulous\u201d might be, literally, one of the most overused words in the English language, but there\u2019s really no better way to describe \u201cArias With a Twist.\u201d A theatrical experience that combines the outsized talents of Joey Arias and Basil Twist, the show has returned to the HERE Arts Center eighteen years after its debut.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you ask Arias how the show came to be, he will tell you, \u201cI was a huge, huge Basil Twist fan,\u201d and Twist will say that \u201cI\u2019ve always been a super fan of Joey.\u201d Although NYC was Arias\u2019 home, he had spent six years performing in Las Vegas with Cirque du Soleil\u2019s \u201cZumanity\u201d as the Emcee (aka the Mistress of Seduction\/Ceremonies) before he came back to the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasil and I had some wine and were talking,\u201d Arias recalls. \u201cHe mentioned that there was an opening in three months at the HERE theater. And he says, I need to do something \u2013 do you want to do a show together? And I just melted!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Twist, a MacArthur Fellowship recipient for his work as a puppeteer and director, has a resume that includes his Symphonie Fantastique, work with the American Ballet Theater, the Royal Shakespeare Company, an upcoming collaboration with a major opera house and Broadway productions such as \u201cThe Pee-Wee Herman Show\u201d and \u201cThe Addams Family.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Just<\/a>Just one of those days\u2026..Joey Arias living the dreamPhoto by Bob Krasner \"Joey<\/a>Joey Arias in the garden. Costume concept by Thierry MuglerPhoto by Bob Krasner \"Joey<\/a>Joey Arias in \u2018Arias With a Twist\u2019Photo by Bob Krasner<\/p>\n

Arias, a favorite of the Downtown New York scene for decades, has performed with David Bowie and Klaus Nomi, as well as Ann Magnuson and the aforementioned Cirque du Soleil, whose show he wrote songs for. A regular fixture at the legendary Wigstock festival, Arias is equally at home singing Led Zeppelin tunes as he is with Billie Holiday, which he did in a show titled \u2018Strange Fruit,\u2019 which ran for over a year at the Astor Place Theater.<\/p>\n

Arias recounts, \u201cBasil asked, \u2018What do you want to do?\u2019 And I immediately said, I want to be abducted by aliens. I want to go on an acid trip and I want to be on a Busby Berkeley cake with a million legs. And he went, \u2018Okay!\u2019\u00a0 And that was literally the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to do something special with Joey\u201d, Twist says. \u201c I thought, well, I\u2019m going to bring my grandfather\u2019s puppets out of their cases and pair them with him\u201d. Those marionettes, now almost 100 years old,\u00a0 were created by his grandfather, a bandleader in the thirties and forties named Griff Williams. Although Williams passed away before Twist was born, his grandmother Dorothy B. Williams gifted them to Twist, who loved them but had never used them before this show.\u00a0 His grandmother also made a donation to HERE, which resulted in the creation of the\u00a0 Dorothy B. Williams Theater, where the show is now being performed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put the show together in two months,\u201d Twist recalls. \u201cWe just went for it and made this show and surprised ourselves with how phenomenal it was.\u201d\u00a0 After its initial run, it was revived \u2013 and revised \u2013 for the much bigger Abrons Arts Center in 2011 for another successful run.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Joey<\/a>Joey Arias in \u2018Arias With a Twist\u2019Photo by Bob Krasner \"Joey<\/a>Joey Arias running with the devilsPhoto by Bob Krasner \"Joey<\/a>Joey Arias in \u2018Arias With a Twist\u2019Photo by Bob Krasner<\/p>\n

While the show has been shrunk down again to fit into HERE, Arias notes that it hasn\u2019t really changed that much, although he mentions that the perception of it may have altered. \u201cEverything means something different now because of the temperature that we live in now,\u201d he muses. \u201cI think the only thing that\u2019s changed is that it\u2019s twenty years later.\u00a0 I think I\u2019m better and quicker than I was then. And Basil and I are more seasoned. So everything is a different taste to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course,\u201d Twist adds, \u201cThere are small changes. When we made the show, George Bush was president. That was how different things were. We had a reference to George Bush at one time that was taken out, but the show is too timeless to update it to our current president.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know,\u201d Twist notes, \u201cThe show was built around Joey, like a couture gown, but what\u2019s even more clear to me as I got back into the space is how much it\u2019s built for that space. It\u2019s built for the Dorothy Theater and it all fits in there like a glove.\u201d One of the endearing aspects of the fantastic sets is the mix of sophistication and handmade DIY look. \u201cYou know, I try to not make things crooked, but sometimes they end up that way because they\u2019re handmade and I allow that\u201d, admits Twist.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While some of the tunes \u2013 a mix of standards, classic rock and originals \u2013 were already in Arias\u2019 repertoire, two of them, \u2018Jungle of Eden\u2019 and \u2018Lately\u2019, were both written for the show by Alex Gifford of the electronic duo Propellerheads. And one, the Led Zep classic \u2018Kashmir\u2019, was given the green light by none other than Jimmy Page himself. \u201cWe were all dolled up and we went to Indochine to have a quick bite before a gig at Bar d\u2019O,\u201d Arias recalls. \u201cJimmy Page \u2013 who I had never met \u2013\u00a0 sat down with us and talked about music and life for like an hour. He was fascinated with us! I told him that I wanted to do \u2018Kashmir\u2019 and he goes, \u2018please do, very curious to see how you do it\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Basil<\/a>Basil Twist, Ricki Lake, Joey AriasPhoto by Bob Krasner \"Joey<\/a>Joey Arias at the HERE Arts Center performing in \u2018Arias With a Twist\u2019Photo by Bob Krasner \"Joey<\/a>Joey Arias in \u2018Arias With a Twist\u2019Photo by Bob Krasner<\/p>\n

That song is the start of it all, the soundtrack to the first scene inside a UFO, which leads into a modern Alice in Wonderland journey that is never less than totally entertaining. Twist notes that \u201cThe show is a star vehicle for Joey Arias. It\u2019s about a being who finds himself far from home and has to make their way home.\u00a0 It\u2019s just a journey, it\u2019s the hero\u2019s quest, the journey home. And that the hero just happens to be Joey Arias, who is, you know, singular and unique.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you leave the theater raving about the experience, you won\u2019t be alone. Cyndi Lauper and Ricki Lake have already checked it out and loved it.\u00a0 There\u2019s no doubt that Twist\u2019s wish for his audience comes true at every performance: \u201cI want people to take away the imaginative possibilities of live performance and the thrill of being in a room watching people make something beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

For further info:\u00a0 basiltwist.com<\/a>,\u00a0 @joeyariasnyc, @basiltwist3 and @ariaswithatwistnyc on Instagram.<\/p>\n

Ticket info: here.org\/shows\/arias-with-a-twist-2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Everyone<\/a>Everyone should have a mini-mePhoto by Bob Krasner \"Joey<\/a>Joey Arias performing with the 100 year old marionettes that were created by Basil Twist\u2019s grandfatherPhoto by Bob Krasner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cFabulous\u201d might be, literally, one of the most overused words in the English language, but there\u2019s really no…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[132226,132227,132228,9,11,10,9720],"class_list":["post-354725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-arias-with-a-twist","tag-basil-twist","tag-joey-arias","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-the-villager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}