The Off-Broadway Theatre Review: Stalker

By Dennis W.

Before the show, I kept hearing the song from Pippin play on repeat in my head all day long, “We’ve got magic to do, just for you.” Cause, in all honesty, I’d never been to a live magic show and was looking forward to seeing the magical Peter Brynolf and Jonas Ljung in their unbelievable illusionary show Stalker at New World Stages. From the title, I didn’t really know what to expect, but what I did get, much to my delight, was a mix of pretty mystifying magic and mentalism. 

Stalker is exactly what the name suggests, privacy and surveillance. And if you haven’t guessed yet, it is the privacy and surveillance of the audience. The show is heavily driven by audience participation. It starts off with people being asked to come up to the stage before the show to get their pictures taken. Then without explanation, those photographs are tacked up on a bulletin board with various other seemingly random elements connected by string. It looks like some kind of police investigation, and during the performance, random people, some from this group and others, are called up to the stage to “help out” with various elements of the show. Luckily (?), I was not one of them.

There is some pretty good magic with burning playing cards and a disappearing cell phone, but most of the performance is Brynolf and Ljung showing off their mental prowess. There are some complicated shenanigans, some that would elicit people’s names, phone numbers, and similar unique personal information that, seemingly, there is no way they could know or even guess.

Magicians Brynolf and Ljung, who burst on the international scene after appearing on “Britain’s Got Talent” with their appropriate Swedish accents, are very engaging and easily “play around” with their willing “helpers.” In the 90-minute show, the elements with these random “helpers” who seemed to relish their moment in the lights of center stage, became the stars of the show, in a way, and gave the magicians a lot of material to work with. The metalist bits take some time to set up, sometimes, and if the “helpers” aren’t as able or willing to play along, the bits start to drag.

Several times during the show the audience cheered loudly and you could hear audience members making audible comments like “How did they do that?” and “I can’t believe it.” The relatively small theatre at New World Stages is perfect for this type of show as it gives intimacy to everything that’s going on. You may be called to the stage, know someone up there, or even just be seated around the person who is called up. An exciting bit of proximity and tension. There is also a remote television camera following the action and projecting it onto a screen.

Brynolf and Ljung often take there tricks into the aisle so they can get up close and personal with the audience. Although I believe that to be the goal, they didn’t engaged with the audience seated closest to them. I believe it would have helped create more of a connection with the entire audience if they engaged not just those who were called to participate.

The surprise finale climactic trick is a shocker and leaves the audience wide-eyed. No one saw it coming. The reveal is fun but then they walk the audience through how it happened. Which elevated the reveal. Stalker is great fun but you have to be into it. I suggest you get your picture taken and try to get a card to fill out when offered at the beginning of the show. Whether you get called up on stage or not, you will enjoy being stalked at  Stalker now mystifying at the New World Stages through August.