
International Theatre Database
2026.01.15 ~ 2026.01.18
BAM
In 2006, downtown theater renegade Richard Foreman teamed up with experimental composer Michael Gordon for a bitingly funny post-rock opera skewering the superficial pressures of society. Now, in its New York debut as part of Next Wave 2025 and Prototype Festival, What to wear is remounted for the first time in 20 years, returned to its original Richard Foreman staging by Big Dance Theater co-founders Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar. In Foreman and Gordon's pageant of seductiveness gone wrong, beauty gives way to something more transcendent—and our contemporary world of fast fashion and influencer culture renders their acerbic critiques still cutting and relevant as ever.
Richard Foreman
Playwright/Author, Director
Michael Gordon
Composer
Paul Lazar
Choreographer
Annie-B Parson
Choreographer
Alan Pierson
Music Director
St. Vincent
Cast(Special Guest)
Sarah Frei
Cast(Principal Vocalist—Soprano 1)
Sophie Delphis
Cast(Principal Vocalist—Soprano 2)
Hai-Ting Chinn
Cast(Principal Vocalist—Mezzo)
Morgan Mastrangelo
Cast(Principal Vocalist—Tenor)