Jessica Hern as Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby
Photograph: Courtesy Mark Senior | The Great Gatsby
Photograph: Courtesy Mark Senior

The best immersive theater in New York right now

Put yourself in the middle of the action at immersive plays and interactive theater experiences beyond Broadway

Adam Feldman
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When it comes to theater, who says you have to just sit and watch? Immersive theater in New York City puts you right in the middle of the action, and often draws you in to participate. Whereas most Broadway shows still follow the traditional proscenium-arch model, some some immersive Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway productions even dispense with the idea of a stage entirely, letting you follow your own paths through unconventional spaces. To help you navigate the maze of options, here is our list of the city's best immersive and interactive shows.

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Immersive Theater in NYC

  • Interactive
  • Hell's Kitchen
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended

Role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons are inherently theatrical: The players are all playing roles, after all. But the idea of building an actual stage show around the game—an entirely improvised one, guided by audience suggestions and decisions—seems, well, a little dicey. But an element of the unexpected is one of the things that makes this goofy fantasy show such fun. Whether or not you know much about D&D going in, it’s an adventuring party you won't want to miss.—Shaye Weaver

  • Interactive
  • Financial District

Audience members choose their own paths through a specially designed multifloor complex in the Financial District in this all-new immersive theatrical experience from Emursive, the producers of Punchdrunk's Sleep No More. Dozens of performers evoke life in the Gilded Age through narratives loosely inspired by real New York City history as well as literary sources like the Faust legend and Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. Teddy Bergman directs the show, which is written by Jon Ronson and features scenic design Gabriel Hainer Evansohn and costumes by Emilio Sosa.

RECOMMENDED: A guide to Life and Trust, NYC’s most intricate immersive theater experience

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  • Dance
  • Burlesque
  • Bushwick
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended

Company XIV's seductive take on Alice in Wonderland is a singular sexcess: a transporting fusion of haute burlesque, circus, dance and song. Impresario Austin McCormick has assembled an array of alluring and highly skilled artists, who look smashing in Zane Pihlstrom's lace-and-crystal-encrusted costumes. With its soundtrack of pop songs, attractive ensemble cast and immersive aesthetics—plus chocolate and specialty cocktails—Queen of Hearts feels like Moulin Rouge! for actual bohemians. Hell, it even has a cancan.—Raven Snook

  • Circuses & magic
  • Midtown West

The Time Square Edition's Paradise Club gives itself over to lunacy in this immersive neocirque extravaganza. Conceived by Lara Jacobs Rigolo, the show combines dance, acrobatics, aerialism, music and visual spectacle to salute 13 ancient goddesses of the moon. Tickets purchased individually at the Medusa level have a $40 drink minimum; the fancier Salome level, available for parties of five to seven, includes a thematically related multicourse preshow dinner curated by John Fraser, formerly of the Michelin-starred restaurant Dovetail.

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  • Interactive
  • Park Slope

A jittery young man named Milo labors to give a eulogy for his late friend, with help from audience volunteers, in an unusual solo-with-assistance show written by Brendan George and conceived by Peter Charney. After a 2023 debut at 59E59, the piece now returns for a more site-specific rotating run at churches and meeting places: the LGBT Community Center on Thursdays, Park Slope's Old First Reformed Church on Fridays, the Lower East Side's Studio Exhibit on Saturday and the West Village's Westbeth Community Center on Sundays. Downtown theater and nightlife publicist Ron Lasko directs this incarnation of the show; Blaize Adler-Ivanbrook, Ryan Boloix and Richard Diamond alternate as Milo. 

  • Things to do
  • Quirky events
  • Recommended

Tom and Betsy Salamon’s unique adventure—part interactive theater, part scavenger hunt, part walking tour—draws participants into an amusing web of puzzles and intrigue. The three-hour Village tour travels through quirky Greenwich Village on Saturday afternoon. Groups of as many as 11 are booked every half hour. 

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