Phoebe Bridgers Brings 'Haunted' Set to Cherry Lane Theatre

Phoebe Bridgers capped three sold-out nights at Brooklyn's Barclays Center last month, then crossed the river for an unscheduled three-song performance at the historic Cherry Lane Theatre in New York's West Village.

The intimate, one-night appearance was filmed for an episode of "Sound Check" at the venue, founded in 1924. Director Lance Oppenheim, who previously helmed Bridgers' "Lost Boys" music video with Primetime co-star Skyler Gisondo, returned to direct. The pairing of artist and filmmaker has become a recurring creative thread, with the Cherry Lane session marking their second collaboration inside a year.

What did boygenius contribute to the set?

Bridgers shared the stage with her longtime collaborator Ethan Gruska. She opened with an eerie, stripped-down rendition of "On Video," her contribution to the Primetime soundtrack, performed while standing in the glow of several television screens. The visual framing, multiple monitors casting light on a single performer, mirrored the surveillance motif of the film.

After the opening number, Bridgers recruited her boygenius bandmates Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker for a version of "Haunted." Dacus held a camcorder aimed at Bridgers throughout the performance, adding a handheld-camera layer to the staged reading.

The trio then moved into "Lost Boys," the closing track of the three-song set. Bridgers has now recorded that song in two distinct visual treatments, with the original video and the Cherry Lane clip both directed by Oppenheim.

What album is she touring behind?

Both "Haunted" and "Lost Boys" appear on Lost Weekend, Bridgers' new album and her first solo LP in six years. The Cherry Lane performance offered a pared-down counterpoint to fuller arrangements on the record, and gave fans an early chance to weigh how the songs hold up in a small room.

What's next on Bridgers' calendar?

Bridgers tours North America through the fall in support of Lost Weekend. She then heads to the U.K. and Europe in December for the international leg.

Phones were locked away at the door, surprise cameos punctuated the set, and a "stellar amount of lights and effects" framed the performance.

How does the show connect to 'Primetime'?

Oppenheim wrote and directed Primetime, a film based on the NBC reality series To Catch a Predator and its host Chris Hansen. The picture premiered at the Venice International Film Festival last month.

Bridgers joined Oppenheim and the rest of the cast at a Venice press conference, where Robert Pattinson, one of the film's leads, fielded questions about how Bridgers came to record for the soundtrack. Pattinson was not previously aware of the friendship between Oppenheim and Bridgers.

"I didn't even know Lance and Phoebe were friends," Pattinson said. "When [he] suggested her, I was like 'Phoebe Bridgers? Why don't we just get the queen?'"

Why does Cherry Lane matter?

The Cherry Lane Theatre, founded in 1924, remains one of New York's oldest continuously operating off-off-Broadway venues. Its 179-seat mainstage has hosted generations of playwrights, including Eugene O'Neill and Sam Shepard. The room now functions as a destination for intimate, single-night music events.

Bridgers' late-evening set, sandwiched between three arena nights, signaled a deliberate downshift in scale that emphasized songwriting over spectacle. The combination of historic setting, pared-down arrangements, and the surprise boygenius reunion turned a post-Brooklyn victory lap into one of the more talked-about New York music moments of the season.