The Extraordinary ‘Arias with a Twist’ – Two Legends Again Collude

By Alix Cohen

Arias with a Twist was first performed in 2008 at Dorothy B. Williams Theatre – HERE Arts Center. I attended the 2011 “deluxe” version at Abrons Art Center. A revival is scheduled at HERE September 17- November 1, 2026.

In the 1970s, when Joey Arias arrived from Los Angeles, the cultural ecosystem of the Lower East Side was a gritty, post-industrial landscape where artists, punks,thespians, and early fashionistas cross-pollinated in squats, lofts, and underground clubs.

Among lifelong friends Joey made were German performance artist Klaus Nomi and French designer Thierry Mugler. Mugler affectionately called him “Goddess,” a nickname with which Basil Twist addresses him today.

The new arrival hung out and worked at the cutting edge boutique Fiorucci, sang back-up for David Bowie (with Klaus) on Saturday Night Live, and performed his own live channeling of Billie Holiday (wearing a suit) in nightclubs. “I tripped on her delivery, the way she would attack words, stretch and move them around.” He’s self-taught.

Invited to Andy Warhol’s Drag Halloween party, Joey was expected to dress. He never liked drag. It was, he felt, inauthentic. “I freaked out.” A friend fitted him with a big red wig, elaborate make-up, and va va voom gown.

“I went as Justine de Sade. (the title character of the 1791 novel Justine, or The Misfortunes of Virtue by the Marquis de Sade- a fiercely virtuous 18th century woman who continually falls prey to corruption and violence.) Water balloon breasts bounced like a vixen from a Russ Myer film. I was uncomfortable, but everyone thought it was great, especially Andy.”

For the record, friend/collaborator Basil Twist loves drag, though not so much the commercial vehicle it’s become. “I knew drag as a subversive, underground theatrical form that could be transporting. Joey doesn’t imitate. He actually creates a character and sings live instead of lip syncing.”

“What he does is personal,” Basil continues. “Joey is Joey, not some other name. When not in drag, he’s the same person.There’s no change of pronouns.The cropped bangs and long nails are striking, but he wears sweatpants.”

At the 1984 founding of Wigstock (a drag festival that grew into a massive LGBTQ+ celebration), Joey again dressed for a Billie Holiday performance. Interest rose in booking the artist as he appeared, not in men’s attire. “It was either $100 as a man or $2000 as a woman,” he reflects. No contest. When he started entertaining at Bar d’O Joey added a Bettie Page pin-up look to his repertoire.He’s featured in the book, Bettie Page, Life of A Pin-Up Legend.

Storefront galleries, nightlife spaces, and DIY venues turned the Lower East Side into a global hub where visual and performance art, fashion, graffiti, and club culture fused together. Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kenny Scharf, Ruben and
Isobel Toledo, and Madonna were some who rose in profile.

In 1988, puppeteer Basil Twist arrived from San Francisco. Two years later, he left for France’s École Supérieure Nationale des Arts de la Marionnette, becoming the only American ever to graduate. Upon return, he took courses at NYU, performed as a bird in Julie Taylor’s Juan Darién: A Carnival Mass, with Mabou Mines and in nightclubs.

The artist’s Symphony Fantastique, an immersive underwater ballet of light and swirling, abstract ‘dancers’, may have reinvented American puppetry.

His then boyfriend was a clubber. Basil first saw Joey perform at Jackie 60 which was near his studio in the meatpacking district. Joey was familiar with Basil’s ‘Fantastique and club appearances. As they got to know one another, working together seemed inevitable.

Basil became Director of the Dream Music Puppetry Program at HERE Arts Center which houses the Dorothy B. Williams Theatre, named for his grandmother. Now on permanent exhibit outside the venue, his grandfather’s marionettes were intermittently disinterred for performance.

The beautiful, 90 year-old, hand-carved group consists of Cab Calloway, Griff Williams (Basil’s big band leader grandfather), Harry James, Ted Lewis, Arturo Toscanini, and Paul Whiteman. All can be seen as the Dream Orchestra in this production.

Meanwhile, Joey went to Las Vegas to become the Mistress of Seduction for Cirque du Soleil’s Zumanity, an adults – only extravaganza combining provocative burlesque, cabaret and acrobatics.

On one of his visits back, he was hired to perform at a big party and asked Basil to join an act with the marionettes. “It was sensational,” Basil recalls. “He was so respectful and alive with the puppets!” It would be years before Joey returned to New York.

“HERE was going through an awkward growing phase from rental to ownership.There was all this construction around the theater,” Basil tells me. For reopening, he’d planned to showcase the work of a young protégé, but the artist backed out leaving a weeks long programming hole in barely three months time.

Undaunted, Basil and Joey decided to collaborate on a show. “I immediately said, ‘I wanna be abducted by aliens, I wanna go on an acid trip (both artists have experience with psychedelics), I wanna a Busby Berkley number.’ And he (Basil) went, ‘Ok.’ And I thought, let’s see if he can DO this.” (Joey)

A week later, still skeptical, he was invited to Basil’s studio.“There were like 8 women sewing a jungle!” The richly detailed puppet and flora Eden (replete with snake) had been inspired by a trip Basil made to visit his parents (environmental activists) in the Amazon Rainforest. When hung as a backdrop, it magically comes alive.

“Joey has always been fascinated by aliens. He’s said that he’s related to them”, Basil comments. The spaceship manifest as a neon-lit, silver vessel. Next came the search for a probe table. (Wait until you see the alien tentacles!)

“We found one on which you hang upside-down to stretch your body. I got on it a couple of times in my high heels. The guy (salesman) had some expression. Next thing I knew, the apparatus was inside a ring that could tip back and forth. It was beautiful. You give Basil a cardboard box and you’ve got a city.” (Joey)

Busby Berkley’s influence manifest as a rotating cake with kicking chorine legs. “I like that kind of leg. I’m always drawing it,” the puppeteer muses. We’re on ZOOM. He holds up a paper on which he’s been absently doodling. It’s a leg in high heels and a garter.

Then there’s the ersatz monster. “He (Joey) had this gag he did where he became a T-Rex (Basil demonstrates with bent elbows and dangling hands), so we put it into the show. He towers over and stomps into Manhattan as a 50′ woman.” Both artists grew up loving Creature Features.

“We talked about songs and what I was gonna look like,” Joey reflects. Mugler, who’d designed Zoomanity, volunteered to do the costumes for what would be Arias With a Twist. “I told him I wanted to look nude and he made this black, strappy, dominatrix thing.” The character, he decided, would be called Z Chromosome – a mélange of the sexes.

Among songs are two written especially for the artist by Alex Gifford of Propellerheads, an electronic music duo from Bath, England. (Their only studio album – 1998- is widely regarded as a landmark of late-1990s electronic music.) “They wanted to work with me because of the Billie Holiday voice.” (Joey)

“I was born in the Jungle of Eden/A garden where few ribs are spare/What ain’t walkin’ is usually eaten/ (snakes start to appear)/And the rest you might not care to share…But the joy of the Jungle of Eden/Is that it’s far from the mischief of Man/And while he’s been contented breedin’/I’ve been evolving as best I can…”
“The Jungle of Eden” – Alex Gifford

There’s pop, rock, torch, several instrumentals by Basil’s grandfather, and a piece by Klaus Nomi (Joey is his executor.) The score came together aided and abetted by DJeff and sound designer Greg Duffin. Music tracks were recorded in Las Vegas.

Visual components have been in storage. Some need repairs, but most have held up well. Basil has two versions of larger pieces, one to suit HERE’s smaller theater, one when playing in a larger venue. He’s happy to be “home.”The Williams has 74 seats. Its intimacy creates an in-your-face experience the collaborators relish.

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!

GO. You’ll never see anything like it.

Opening Photo: Steven Menendez
All uncredited photos courtesy of the subjects

Joey Arias’ album, Past, Present, Future can e found on Spotify, SoundCloud etc.

HERE Arts Center 145 Sixth Avenue
Tickets: https://here.app.getcuebox.com/o/CCTQ0T6B/shows/8SSHT1VL