Thirty characters; 250 overlapping scenes; 1,000 minutes of music; two nightly shows. Does this sound like something out of Guinness World Records? The producers of Sleep No More have created a new and even bolder project called Life and Trust. Inspired by the Faust legend, the immersive piece of theater begins during the Wall Street Crash of 1929. A financier meets the devil and accepts eternal damnation in exchange for the opportunity to relive his youth. After watching the introduction together, the audience (who all wear black masks) is transported back to 1894, where they can view performers bringing various scenes to life in the elaborately adorned 10,000-foot space, before reconvening for a finale. The show takes place in a historic bank in New York’s Financial District. Construction began in 2019 after the producers discovered that the bottom floors of the block-long building were largely unoccupied. “It’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of refinement. It’s alchemy,” says the co-director and choreographer Jeff Kuperman. —Jeanne Malle