A new walking tour in Lower Manhattan is providing theater lovers, history buffs and fans of pop superstar Lady Gaga with a new perspective on fame. “A Gaga Guide to the Lower East Side" is part history lesson, part immersive theater. It’s an ode to the artist formerly known as Stefani Germanotta, and an examination of how people relate to celebrity.
There’s also a quirky twist: “You get the backstory of this character that's actually giving you a walking tour,” said writer Ron Lasko, who created the tour and its guide.
That guide, named Phil, is a former reality TV star who’s hit a rough patch. His 15 minutes of fame are up, and he’s leading tours just to keep a foot in the entertainment world. Throughout the journey, he takes phone calls from his agent about the effect infamous gossip blogger Perez Hilton is having on his prospects. But by the end of the tour, Phil’s career just might be back on track.
“The issue with walking tours in general, they tend to be a little boring in some ways, because you have to go from site to site,” Lasko said. He says he added a theatrical element to boost excitement for his patrons. He wants people to be entertained at every step.
Lasko says he dreamed up the idea of his “Gaga Guide” walking tour during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the 75-minute trek around the Lower East Side, East Village and Alphabet City, participants discover the history behind places like the music venue CBGB and learn how a statue atop an East Village condo was meant to honor the fall of communism. The trek offers fun tidbits about places Gaga lived and spots she frequented before she became famous.
“The issue with walking tours in general, they tend to be a little boring in some ways, because you have to go from site to site,” Lasko said. He says he added a theatrical element to boost excitement for his patrons. He wants people to be entertained at every step. “I tried to come up with a way to sort of fill in that gap, when you're sort of moving from location to location, which is how the idea for having a character sort of a fictionalized character, do this tour for you.”
Because Gaga is a New York native and performed at a number of places around the LES early in her career, Lasko said she was the perfect person to center the tour around. Like much of Gaga’s earlier music, “A Gaga Guide to the Lower East Side" also pokes fun at the idea of being famous. Lasko said there’s no big moral to the story, but he hopes it reflects how weird fame is to him.
“I don't understand that impulse to give up your privacy, and to give up a huge chunk of your life to be known,” he said. “It's just odd to me. And I think that's where this character comes from.”
Lynwood McCloud is one of two actors who portray Phil in alternating performances. As someone who’s always looking for his next gig, he says, he related to the character’s drive to keep a job, even if it’s less than desirable.
“Even those who get some sort of widespread fame still have to do something when they're not making movies, or they're not on stage and plays,” McCloud said. “It always fascinates me to hear about actors of all levels, about what they do in the meantime.”
Lasko’s favorite examples of the history incorporated into his tour are the stories behind a particular building at 141 Houston Street. Every 20 years or so, he says, the nine-story structure became the site of something new, almost like a reinvention. The site has housed a German Evangelical Mission Church; a Dutch Reformed Church; and the Houston Athletic Club, where organized crime leader Jack Rose held prizefights.
“It's had nine lives in 180 years – I was able to trace it all the way back,” Lasko said. “It's just fascinating to see that this one lot could have had nine significant lives. And to me, that's sort of symbolic of New York in general.”
Farhan Mia, a New Yorker who took the tour during its opening weekend, had no idea Lady Gaga had lived in the city. However, he said that as someone who likes to learn about a place's history through its connection to music, the tour was right up his alley.
“I would definitely recommend this to people,” Mia said. “Especially those who are coming to visit New York City and trying to understand the geography of a party capital and music capital or fashion capital.”
“A Gaga Guide to the Lower East Side" runs on Saturdays and Sundays through May 28.
