Julio Torres would like to talk to you about red. The comedian will make his Off Broadway debut this fall with Color Theories. The show “attempts to understand the world through colors,” according to Torres, and “how I relate to systems and people through the lens of colors.” Torres calls the show a “multimedia, potentially synesthetic experience,” though he doesn’t know if he has the condition synesthesia. “I don’t want to self-diagnose,” he says to Vulture. “I would leave that to an expert.” Torres developed Color Theories by touring it worldwide through cities including Paris, Melbourne, Brooklyn, and Pittsburgh, but this is the show’s first full production, featuring set design by Tommaso Ortino. Color Theories is Torres’s first solo performance project since his 2019 HBO special My Favorite Shapes, which Vulture listed as one of the top-ten best comedy specials of that year. Since then, he created the TV shows Los Espookys and Fantasmas for HBO, and wrote, directed, and starred in the A24 film Problemista.

“My Favorite Shapes was the first time that I performed as a comedian–slash–solo performer on a set that informed the comedy, but it was created so it could be captured for HBO, and that left me wanting,” Torres says, explaining why he felt the need to perform Color Theories as an extended engagement in one location. “It felt like such a shame to create a beautiful thing and have it physically exist for 24 hours. I’ve been aching to have something with that level of theatricality, but have it exist as a theatrical experience. Color Theories will be brought to life with a level of theatricality I’m very excited about.” Despite premiering the show Off Broadway, Torres isn’t sure whether it is a one-man show, a stand-up, or something else — the press release refers to it as a “theatrical experience.” “Whatever job title I use doesn’t feel quite right to me,” he says. “To me, I’m just performing and explaining color theories in a theatrical way.”

The Boundary Road Productions show begins previews on September 3 at Performance Space New York’s Keith Haring Theater before officially opening on September 10 and running through September 21. Last November at Vulture Festival, when asked what he’ll wear, Torres said, “I don’t want to be biased. If I’m saying, ‘And red is like …’ and I’m wearing red, then I’m telegraphing that you should read me as that.” Now, he’s still not sure, but he knows he’ll have to talk about it. “There is no such thing as neutral, so I think it’s a matter of leaning into it,” he says “I think it has to be addressed.” Tickets to Color Theories are on sale, for all those curious about what he decides.

Related

• Julio Torres Has Bold and Bright New Color Theories
• The Fantasmas Cast Has Cruel Intentions
• Los Espookys Was a Blessing

 The comedian will make his Off Broadway debut this fall, but he’s still not sure what he’ll wear.