Now You See Me Live

Now You See Me Live is a stage illusion show: an evening of magic, not a musical and not a play. Four illusionists share the stage under the name the Horsemen, a nod to the crew of stage magicians who double as thieves in the Now You See Me films from Lionsgate. In one act of about 90 minutes, they move between illusions that lean on stage technology, stunts performed by a single magician and large-scale illusions staged as full set pieces.

The show comes from the producing partnership behind The Illusionists, the touring magic revue created by Simon Painter and Tim Lawson. Painter and the illusionist Adam Trent came up with the concept, Lawson leads the producing team, and Lionsgate, the studio behind the films, is a partner in the production. It is an original stage work rather than a revival or a transfer of an earlier Broadway staging, and the run at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre is its Broadway premiere.

The New York visit is short by design: a limited engagement of eight weeks across the holiday season, starting on November 11, 2026. Before the Broadway booking was announced, the show had already played in Australia and Singapore and spent a season in the West End.

Do not expect a story. The evening is built as a run of separate acts rather than a plot, and it is not a stage version of any of the films. In the Sydney staging, the links to the movies were loose, among them a scene styled as a bank heist and jokes about stealing from the people seated closest to the stage. What carries over from the screen is mostly the idea of a team of four magicians and a taste for heists.

Audience members are brought into the tricks. In Australia, the whole house took part in one mass card trick, using playing cards that people picked up in the foyer before the show. In the same staging, cameras moved around the stage so that people in the back rows could follow the close-up magic. The Broadway version may handle these moments differently, but audience involvement is part of how the show works.

As of October 2026, the Horsemen announced for Broadway are escapologist Gabriella Lester, illusionists James More and Darcy Oake, and mentalist Matthew Pomeroy. The line-up has changed from one city to the next, with performers rotating between engagements.

Gabriella Lester, a Canadian magician born in Johannesburg, specializes in escapes. At 14 she completed Houdini's suspended straitjacket escape. She has been a frequent headliner at Hollywood's Magic Castle, and in 2024 she joined Penn & Teller: Fool Us as an associate producer. Away from magic, she rides motorcycles and works as a stunt double.

James More is a British illusionist who first reached a wide audience on Britain's Got Talent in 2013. He then joined The Illusionists, performing with that company in more than 50 countries, and appeared in its 2015 New York engagement.

Darcy Oake, a Canadian illusionist, began doing magic at age eight; his father is the sportscaster Scott Oake. He placed fifth on Britain's Got Talent in 2014, in the program's eighth series, and his range takes in escapes, sleight of hand, big stage illusions and a signature act with doves. In 2016 he performed at Windsor Castle during the celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II's 90th birthday, and in 2018 he joined the Broadway company of The Illusionists.

Matthew Pomeroy is a British mind reader and storyteller. Together with Natasha Lamb, Pomeroy forms the duo The Conjurors, who opened a Las Vegas residency in 2024 with Cabin of Wonders and followed it with Secret Wonders in 2026. His engagements have included the London Olympic Games, the FIFA World Cup and the Stanley Cup Finals.

The story begins on screen. Now You See Me, directed by Louis Leterrier and built on characters created by Boaz Yakin and Edward Ricourt, was released in 2013. Its premise, a team of illusionists who use their performances as cover for heists, continued in Now You See Me 2 in 2016 and in Now You See Me: Now You Don't, released on November 14, 2025. As of October 2026, a fourth film is reported to be in development.

The producers' history in live magic runs through The Illusionists, which Painter and Lawson launched at the Sydney Opera House on January 12, 2012. That revue played New York in several year-end runs between 2014 and 2019, and two of the 2026 Broadway Horsemen, More and Oake, appeared in them.

An earlier version of the live show is reported to have toured China in 2018 and 2019 with a different cast. The present production had its premiere in December 2025 at the Sydney Opera House, in the building's Concert Hall, with Adam Trent, Enzo Weyne, Andrew Basso and Gabriella Lester as the Horsemen. The Sydney season ran until January 3, 2026.

After Sydney, the tour visited Brisbane, Perth and Singapore; the Perth season, at the Crown Theatre in Burswood, ran until February 1, 2026. The West End came next, with a five-week season at the London Coliseum from July 31, 2026. The London run had three co-producers: Timothy Laczynski, BOS Productions and Runaway Entertainment.

The Broadway engagement was announced on September 10, 2026. As of October 2026, no separate opening night for the press had been announced. A second company plays the MGM Grand Theater in Las Vegas from October 15, 2026, to January 5, 2027, so the show runs in both cities at once for the whole of its New York stay.