The McKittrick Hotel is actually three adjoining warehouses in Chelsea’s gallery district. The masked audience moves freely at their own pace, choosing where to go and what to see, and everyone’s journey is unique.Īccording to the show’s website, the hotel was completed in 1939 and “intended to be New York City’s finest and most decadent luxury hotel.” The site goes on to explain that “six weeks before opening, and two days after the outbreak of World War II, the legendary hotel was condemned and left locked, permanently sealed from the public” until it was restored and reinvented by Punchdrunk and EMURSIVE. It is not uncommon to be pulled into a secret room by the “thespain staff” of the hotel who will proceed to reveal mysterious clues and information in private behind closed doors. The production leads its audience on a merry, macabre chase up and down stairs, and through minimally illuminated, furniture-cluttered rooms and corridors (it’s completely interactive - you choose the path you want to take), and the audience encounters the actors scattered throughout the entire hotel for a string of unforgettable spontaneous moments of pure magic. There are nearly 100 rooms in the McKittrick Hotel, including what Kelly Ripa and Neil describe as their personal favorite “pheasant rooms” adorned with stuffed pheasants throughout. Each audience member wears a white Venetian mask, and the only rule is you’re not allowed to speak out loud. Sleep No More tells the story of William Shakespeare’s Macbeththrough a film noir lens (imagine the atmosphere of Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, mixed with David Lynch, mixed with a spectacular murder mystery night, mixed with an old haunted hotel). He proceeded to tell the story of what happened to him and his friends when they entered Sleep No More, an immersive theatre installation created by British theatre company Punchdrunk and EMURSIVE, which takes place inside the fictional McKittrick Hotel (a reference to the film Vertigo). This morning I caught the beginning of LIVE With Kelly with Neil Patrick Harris co-hosting alongside Kelly Ripa, and he told a story about one of the most incredible theatrical / immersive / bizarro / adventurous experiences he has ever had in his entire life which took place recently in New York City. Ladies and gents, I think I’ve just discovered what I want to do with the rest of my life.
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