Meri Luis

The Alternate is a journey into the subconscious. It tells the story of a creature that survives by emulating every form of life it encounters, endlessly transforming in order to exist.

On stage, this being shifts and evolves, exploring the fragile boundary between imitation and identity. At times it becomes human, perhaps the most beautiful and the most dangerous form of all.

In many ways, this creature reflects the genesis of Meri Luis, an identity I have been questioning and reshaping since I was thirteen. Transformation has become my language of survival, a way to escape the stigmas imposed upon me and redefine myself again and again.

The process by which I exist is still a mystery to me, but I am beginning to understand it. And more than that, I am beginning to own it.

I will always be misunderstood.

Because, in truth, I want to be.

Jule Styne, with lyrics by Bob Merrill, created one of the brightest and most iconic scores of what many consider one of the pillars of musical theatre: Funny Girl.

At the center of the story is Fanny Brice, not the most beautiful, nor the most elegant, nor the one the world expected. And yet, Fanny shone with a light that does not ask for permission and cannot be extinguished.

Funny Girl tells the story of a woman who was told too many times that she wasn’t enough, when in truth she was too much: too authentic and too free to fit into other people’s expectations. Too stubborn to accept a “no,” and too determined to stop chasing her dream.

With the desire to give you a true Broadway experience, Meri Luis brings this act to the stage as a tribute to Fanny, to herself, and to all those who have ever felt wrong, out of place, incompatible with the world around them.

Because sometimes, being “funny” simply means embracing your “too much” as a gift rather than a flaw.