The Illustrious Blacks—the married musical duo of Monstah Black and Black!—will descend on The Flea in New York City as alien superstars in Beyond the Stardust, a live-album experience running September 10 through October 18.

The production immerses audiences in Afrofuturist dance-floor culture through 12 original songs by The Illustrious Blacks, many co-written and produced by W. Andrew Raposo. The premise: when outside forces invade the safe space of the Stardust Club at the Flea, the duo come down to Earth to revive the joy of the dance floor.

Flea artistic director Niegel Smith is directing and choreographing the piece. "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," Smith says.

The performance begins the moment audiences arrive. The elevator and staircase will shimmer with intergalactic decor, and the upstairs lobby will hold a bar and a glam station just outside the theater space. Inside, two stages on opposite walls will host the musical performances. Attendees will not just observe; they will dance on the floor throughout the show. ADA seating will be available.

Smith says he was challenged to bring the club into the theater rather than to make a theater out of the club. He plans to keep the club's energy from faltering 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, The Illustrious Blacks performed at Honcho Campout, a multiday queer music festival in Artemas, Pennsylvania. During that set, they recognized that a 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 disrupts 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 of the venue will carry names of and quotes from queer and trans ancestors of color pivotal to The Illustrious Blacks' work, including Audre Lorde and O'Shae Sibley, the Black dancer killed in a hate crime in 2023. These voices sit at the core of the 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."

With two facing stages, a dancing audience, and ancestors watching from the walls, Beyond the Stardust tests whether a subscription-model theater can hold the liberating charge of a queer club night—if it works, the Stardust Club may become a model for how The Flea programs its space going forward.