In the club, dancing is all about sharing energy with people who find freedom in the same rhythm as you. The Flea theater artistic director Niegel Smith and the musicians The Illustrious Blacks—aka Monstah Black and Black!, who are married—strive to bring the same feeling to Beyond the Stardust.
The live-album experience, at The Flea in New York City from September 10 to October 18, immerses participants in Afrofuturist dance-floor culture. It features 12 original songs by The Illustrious Blacks, many of which were co-written and produced by W. Andrew Raposo. When outside forces invade the safe space of the Stardust Club at the Flea, the duo enter as alien superstars, coming down to Earth to help revive the joy of the dance floor.
“Inside this club is a place where you’re meant to be liberated as your full self, as a queer person, as a person of color, as whoever you are,” says Smith, who is directing and choreographing Beyond the Stardust.
The performance begins as you enter through the elevator and staircase, both of which will be shimmering with intergalactic decor. The upstairs lobby will include a bar and glam station just outside the theater space. Inside, two stages on opposite walls will host the musical performances. Attendees will be not just observers but participants, dancing on the floor throughout the show. There will also be Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) seating available.
Smith says he was challenged to bring the club into the theater rather than to make a theater out of the club. He will ensure the club’s energy never falters by keeping people’s attention moving. “At the club, you’re being offered a space to go deeper with yourself with the music, to go deeper with your people beside you,” Smith says.
In preparation for the performance, The Illustrious Blacks performed at Honcho Campout, a multiday queer music festival in Artemas, Pennsylvania. During their set, they recognized that the club atmosphere, blended with the spirituality and soul of house music, “felt like a religious experience,” Black! says.
In Beyond the Stardust, the outside world will disrupt the sanctity of club culture in the form of pop music—a symbol of conformity. “Not that all pop is bad, but in this context, it’s about questioning what’s being fed to you, and being authentic about what it is you like, what you need for your spirit, your soul, your mind, your body,” Black! says.
The walls will also be covered in names of and quotes from queer and trans ancestors of color who are pivotal to The Illustrious Blacks’ work, including Audre Lorde and O’Shae Sibley, the Black dancer who was killed in a hate crime in 2023. These voices are at the core of the creative duo’s relationship to house music.
“Monstah and I met in a club dancing, and so house music and dance music mean a great deal to us,” Black! says. “It is our church. Welcome to the cosmic church.”