Review Roundup: Julio Torres' COLOR THEORIES Off-Broadway

Color Theories, the new theatrical spectacle by Emmy-nominated, Peabody Award and WGA-winning writer, director, and performer Julio Torres, is now officially open. Performances of this strictly limited engagement, which marked Torres' Off-Broadway debut, continues at Performance Space New York.

Fresh from winning a 2025 Peabody Award for his HBO series Fantasmas, Color Theories finds Torres blending stand-up, design, and dream logic into a whimsical exploration of color, emotion, and identity that is equal parts comedy, theater, and art piece. 

The creative team for Color Theories includes Tommaso Ortino (scenic designer), Muriel Parra (Costume Designer), Emmanuel Delgado (lighting designer), Christopher Darbassie (sound designer),  Lia Ouyang Rusli (composer), André Azevedo Sweet (video & projections designer), Sam Levy (director of photography), Monkey Boys Productions (puppets and puppetry), and Jack Serio (artistic consultant). See what the critics are saying...

Frank Scheck, New York Stage Review:  There’s plenty of visual humor on display as well, with Torres providing silly explanatory drawings that, for the benefit of the many patrons seated on the sides with an obstructed view, are projected on various screens. Muriel Parra’s witty costumes and Tommaso Ortino’s ingenious set design, with parts of the stage popping up to reveal various surprises, add greatly to the fun.

Jonathan Mandell, New York Theatre: “Color Theories” is funny and weird and sometimes confusing. It reminded me at various times of Pee Wee Herman (childlike tone, cartoonish set, puppetry), George Carlin (observational and political humor), and Andy Kaufman (is he kidding or for real?), although none of those comparisons are really accurate, since the show is uniquely Julio Torres. His gently surreal take on the world will be familiar to those who have seen his 2019 special “My Favorite Shapes,” 2023 movie “Problemista” or 2024 TV series “Fantasmas” (all on HBOMax.) Now, in his Off-Broadway debut, he climbs out of a hole in the stage and tells us almost immediately that, contrary to rumors, this new show of his is not an Off-Broadway play.

Rosy Alvarez, De Los: “Color Theories” does not communicate as a pessimistic rant about the world but rather examines how government and institutions of power shape our society — and how that power complicates and often oppresses the everyday reality of the average person — by using humorous, universally relatable vantage points and lighthearted pop culture moments.