Interview: Joey Arias Brings ARIAS WITH A TWIST Home

Nearly two decades after Joey Arias and Basil Twist unleashed aliens, puppets, an acid trip, and a Busby Berkeley-inspired finale upon downtown New York, ARIAS WITH A TWIST is coming back home to the HERE Arts Center in Hudson Square (Lower Manhattan).

Before Arias stepped back onto that intimate stage, however, he needed to reconnect with New York in a particularly visceral way. So, he headed to Coney Island and rode the Cyclone three times. “The Cyclone was going to shake me and give me that power of what New York is all about,” Arias explains. “That 100-year-old roller coaster, made of wood, offered me its full power because I was making something similar. Now, I’m going to be on stage with wood and things that are going to shake me up and give me that same power that Basil [Twist]’s going to be putting on stage.”

That jolt seems appropriate for remounting ARIAS WITH A TWIST because both Arias and Twist are asking what could happen if they, once again, combined their respective artistic worlds without restraint.

Almost 20 years ago, ARIAS WITH A TWIST came about when Arias had recently returned from starring in Cirque du Soleil’s ZUMANITY. Twist approached Arias about filling a three-week opening in HERE’s schedule. “I’ve been a big fan of Basil’s for many years,” Arias recalls. Having spent years longing to be in one of Twist’s shows, when Twist asked what he wanted to create, Arias had an immediate answer. “I want to be abducted by aliens. I want to go on an acid trip and have a big Busby Berkeley finale with a big cake with a million legs.”

The result was the now iconic ARIAS WITH A TWIST, which premiered at HERE in 2008. The show received enthusiastic reviews and admiration from audiences for being a fusion of cabaret, puppetry, music, performance art, and visual spectacle. It even earned Drama Desk and GLAAD Media Award nominations and eventually toured both nationally and internationally.

“We just wanted to present something that was going to be the best of Basil and the best of Joey, and just give back to New York what handmade art was all about,” Arias says of the 2008 production. Yet, they could not anticipate what followed. “I wouldn’t even say it was a downtown phenomenon, it was like a New York phenomenon,” Arias remembers. “All of Broadway came to the show. All of Hollywood came to the show. And pop stars too.”

Now, ARIAS WITH A TWIST is returning to the Dorothy B Williams Theatre at HERE Arts Center, scheduled to run from September 17 through November 1, 2026. For Arias, its handmade nature may make the show even more relevant in 2026. “The timing is so perfect because now everything is so AI, everything is overproduced, everything is like millions and millions of dollars, and here’s this handmade show,” he says. “This is all real singing. This is all physical.”

And physical it certainly is. Arias spends much of the show in six-inch heels, corseted, and singing approximately 15 songs as Twist’s universe continually transforms around him. Sets change every few minutes, and at one point Arias finds himself floating through the air during the show’s psychedelic journey. “You’re bending and you’re flipping, you’re down, you’re up,” Arias says of his time on stage in the show. “The set changes every two minutes right before your eyes. It’s pretty mind-boggling.”

For Arias, that offers audiences something beyond escapism. “You got to let people dream that they can go out there and do things. You can make things work. You don’t need a million dollars. You just need a dream, a piece of paper, some scissors, and to start doing it,” he adds.

ARIAS WITH A TWIST also provides a uniquely concentrated dose of Arias himself. “It’s sexy, it’s provocative, it’s imaginative, and it’s a learning lesson,” he states. “It pushes the boundaries because it’s a little naughty sometimes, but it’s also keeping it real. You got to keep it real.”

At the center of the piece is Arias interacting with Twist’s fantastical creations. To Arias, though, those puppets are never merely objects. “When I’m on stage with them, they’re my friends. This is real,” he explains. “Everything has a soul. Even the jungle, even the aliens, every little thing in the show to me is real.”

That relationship is made possible by the artistic trust between Arias and Twist. “I respect him, he respects me, and we join forces,” Arias points out. “You don’t grow unless you take chances.”

Returning to this piece has also given Arias an opportunity to discover how both he and the material have changed. Perhaps the greatest difference is Arias himself. In 2017, Arias was struggling with substance abuse when his friend Kim Hastreiter staged an intervention. Arias entered detox and has remained sober. He speaks about the experience candidly, explaining that getting sober was something he already desperately wanted for himself.

“I wanted to stop. I thought, ‘This is bulls**t. I can’t do this,’” he shares. “You have to really want to be back to who you were.”

For Arias, sobriety was about more than removing substances from his life. It was about experiencing life completely again. He wanted, “to feel everything that goes on in [his] body” again.

That makes returning to a physically and emotionally demanding work he created before getting sober particularly meaningful. “The words now resonate differently than they used to. It’s almost like what I wrote was a precursor to what’s happening now,” he says. “And being sober, I’m saying things differently, and I’m singing a little bit differently.”

Most importantly, he adds, “It feels good to be home.”

That home is remarkably intimate. At HERE, there is little distance separating Arias from the people watching him. “The audience will be right there, literally right in front of me,” he admits. “There’s no three-foot back gap. It’s literally like if you put your foot out, I might trip.”

That homecoming also provides an opportunity to introduce Arias and Twist’s artistry to audiences who know the legendary downtown New York scene primarily through photographs, books, social media, and songs like Madonna’s recent hit “Danceteria.”

“Because I’m alive, Basil’s alive, we’re alive, the stage is alive. Why not really come, learn, and be inspired?” Arias asks. “It’s about setting the new generation on fire so that they can get off their f**king phones.” Arias believes younger artists are already hungry to understand the creative world that produced figures like Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, Klaus Nomi, and Arias himself. ARIAS WITH A TWIST gives them an opportunity not simply to study that history, but to encounter some of its creators in the flesh.

For Arias, the production is not simply about nostalgia. It is proof that New York’s adventurous artistic spirit remains alive. “Yes, downtown is alive. The avant-garde is now on guard and in full bloom,” he declares.

Ultimately, Arias hopes this revival feels like gratitude made tangible. “It’s basically a big ‘Thank you’ and a big love letter to New York City,” he states. “They call it New York ‘cause it’s always new and things get refreshed, but we’re here. We’re here to serve, we’re here to show you that we’re still alive, and we’re doing it now and doing it better than ever.”

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