After making history for being New York’s longest-running play, Perfect Crime is doing it once again—this time by embracing artificial intelligence to bridge language barriers. The off-Broadway murder mystery now offers AI-powered live translations, allowing non-English speakers to experience the performance in their native language in real time.
At The Theater Center, where Perfect Crime has been running for over 36 years, audience members can now scan a QR code and choose from over 60 languages. They can listen to the performance with near-instant translation through an app and a pair of earbuds. This initiative, launched in partnership with Silicon Valley-based startup Wordly, is the first of its kind in the U.S. theater industry.
Catherine Russell, general manager and lead actress of Perfect Crime, hopes this will attract new audiences, particularly tourists who might otherwise skip English-language productions.
“We’re always looking for ways to reinvent ourselves, to bring a lot of tourists to come to see our show, but many of them don’t speak English,” Russell told Semafor. “But they want the experience of seeing a show, and it occurred to me that it might be great if they could hear the show in their own language.”
How it works
Actors’ voices are captured through microphones and fed into a cloud-based AI translation system. The dialogue is transcribed, translated, and played back to audience members within seconds. For those who prefer reading along, real-time captions also appear on their mobile devices.
The technology—typically used by businesses, schools, and government agencies—has a reported accuracy of 95-100%. While it may not yet replicate the tone and emotion of a live actor, early tests show it provides a natural listening experience.
A step toward more inclusive theater
Theater productions have long struggled to accommodate diverse audiences, particularly in off-Broadway and regional performances still recovering from pandemic-related setbacks. While Broadway has bounced back, smaller theaters continue facing challenges in filling seats. This move aims to make live theater more accessible, not only to tourists but also to people with hearing impairments who can benefit from text-based captions.
Is AI translation perfect?
Not quite. Some theater experts worry AI might flatten the artistry of language, missing wordplay or cultural nuances. But Russell argues that accessibility matters more. For now, Perfect Crime is the only U.S. theater offering live AI translation. But if audiences keep embracing it, the curtain may soon rise on a whole new era of inclusive theater.