A trio of attendees at “The Queen’s Ball: A ‘Bridgerton’ Experience.”
Photographer: Federico Imperiale/Fever
After Immersive Van Gogh, It’s Time for Live-Cosplay ‘Bridgerton’
An interactive show dedicated to the Netflix costume drama joins the growing crop of experience rooms occupying urban spaces left vacant by the pandemic.
Two episodes into the second season of “Bridgerton,” the Netflix costume drama, I’d figured it out. It’s set in the past, in fancy-times England. Everyone is dating. All the single ladies like this squirrelly viscount, because he is rich. But he is only interested in the one woman he can’t have, for some family reason. Oh, and there is an anonymous blogger who writes a newsletter about the nightlife scene called “Lady Whistledown’s Society Papers,” and the queen wants to dox her. Got it.
So when I booked a ticket to “The Queen’s Ball: A ‘Bridgerton’ Experience,” billed as “a once-in-a-lifetime evening of music and dance” inspired by the show and staged in northeast Washington, D.C., I thought I knew what to expect. In the days before the pandemic, the city hosted several theatrical pop-up events that drew inspiration from franchises like Star Wars and “A Game of Thrones.” There would be overpriced drinks, and maybe classical renditions of pop numbers by the likes of Nirvana or Madonna, like on Shonda Rhimes’s hit show. This town loves a theme party — for cherry blossoms, Super Mario Brothers or Y2K — so a “Bridgerton” pop-up wouldn’t be the weirdest.