Nestled underground at HERE Arts Center, there’s a jungle of fabric in shades of green on stage at the Dorothy B. Williams Theatre. The downtown performance icon Joey Arias, a star on his hand and long natural nails, is rehearsing, glittering black shoes on his feet. He’s directed by the puppeteer Basil Twist, a lamp strapped to his forehead, as they rehearse. Together, they developed the show Arias with a Twist, which returns to the New York stage this month after its first appearance 18 years ago. 

Arias with a Twist, once the subject of its own documentary, arrived to thunderous praise upon its 2008 debut. Both Arias and Twist had built magical careers for themselves to that point–Arias through not just his famed channelings of Billie Holiday’s vocal stylings and drag performance, but through his work at the original Fiorucci location, on Saturday Night Live with David Bowie and longtime collaborator Klaus Nomi, at beloved drag bar Bar d’O, and in Cirque du Soleil’s Zumanity in Las Vegas. Twist, who has since become a Guggenheim Fellow and MacArthur “Genius” grantee among many other accolades, by then had “helped transform American perceptions of puppetry from kids’ stuff to high art,” according to Deadline, with the debut of his innovative show Symphonie Fantastique. Both were lauded for their inventive contributions to performance, a phenomenon that only continued upon the show’s premiere. As theatre critic Ben Brantley wrote in The New York Times when the show opened, “Eat your heart out, Madonna. The chanteuses who play Madison Square Garden and football stadiums have never experienced the imaginative heights of spectacle with which Basil Twist surrounds Joey Arias in ‘Arias With a Twist.’” Arias with a Twist developed a coterie of admirers not just in New York, but around the world. 

And the same remains true for the 2026 rendition, housed in its original location. It’s still an otherworldly acid trip of a show that takes us from outer space to that aforementioned jungle, from the pits of hell to the New York City skyline to a jazz club, and more, all at once inflected with B-movie science fiction, classic Hollywood camp, and daring downtown dazzle. For every set change, there’s a corresponding song by Arias and puppetry by Twist, whether it’s Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir,” Eric Carmen’s “All by Myself,” The Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” or original songs composed just for the show, all accented by aliens and spaceships, mushrooms and monkeys, showgirls and a full band, and even a Busby Berkeley-inspired number with a revolving wedding cake. Arias wears custom Mugler—they were longtime friends—throughout the show. When you put on your “suspension of disbelief” hat and allow the show to astonish, tickle, and charm you—something we don’t do nearly often enough, generally speaking—it’s nothing short of delightful.

Then there’s the fact that you get to spend the evening with two legends of their respective fields. Arias arrived in New York 50 years ago this year and remembers a city of artists all striving for their place in the world. Twist came to New York in the late 1980s/early 1990s and met Arias in the downtown club scene. “Everyone was just a bum really in those days. Nobody was famous,” Arias laughs. “We used to go like, one day we’re all gonna wake up and scream and laugh and go ‘we’re all gonna be famous.’ Well now, we laugh.” Goals achieved. But they don’t let it go to their heads. “We’re here to do the best performance. I want people to walk out and go like, ‘I hate that bitch [Joey Arias], that Basil Twist, he does it again!’” Arias laughs.

It’s a special moment for Arias, too, as he celebrates almost nine years sober. “My mind is so clear and so everything feels completely different now,” he says. “Even the words feel different. They taste different. I’m grateful to be in that jungle. I’m grateful to be in that spaceship. I’m grateful to go on that acid trip.”

While Arias with a Twist had toured the world and there was a “deluxe” version of the show in 2010, people kept asking both artists when it would return. “It’s the 18th anniversary of the show. We could have waited for the 20th, I guess? But it’s like, why wait?” Twist says. “I think we need it now. I hate to refer to the current state of the world, but like, why wait to put on a fun, sexy, imaginative, beloved show that’s a precious piece of art we created? Why wait to share it again? It just made sense.”

In short, doing the show made Arias and Twist happy, and they wanted to make other people happy, too. “It was just like yes, let’s do something joyful…for all our friends and get all our friends to come and see it again, and more people,” Twist says. “And inspire them, and get them excited, and to dream, and then feel beautiful with themselves, and feel gorgeous, no matter who you are,” Arias adds. “Velvety, corduroy, you’re going to be beautiful no matter what…everyone’s beautiful in this world, this jungle.”

The timing proved right, especially in a moment when societal messaging is turning further and further away from devices. I credit the person I overheard behind me at the show with the observation that “everything here is analog.” It was made by hand, by people. Twist echoes this sentiment when we speak. “It’s totally handmade. This show, it’s completely human-driven. In that way it’s not just something from 2008. It’s something ancient, and I think that’s in contrast with a lot of ‘product’ entertainment, what is kind of shoved into our senses all day long,” Twist says. “That something [is] human-driven and handmade is actually even more radical, so that’s one thing how it’s speaking to this time.”

“It feels fresh again,” Arias adds. “I sat and looked at everything with it, and I got goosebumps. I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is really coming together.’ Just looking at that, it was blowing my mind. I thought, this is really brand new again. Like, 18-20 years later, it’s brand new.”

Arias with a Twist runs at HERE Arts Center until November 1.