A hot sauce tasting party disguised as a play. Or maybe it's the other way around.
Audience and actors eating hot sauce live. Twelve possible paths. Truth or dare. A piñata full of secrets. Everyone doing the hustle.
We weren't sure it would work. It sold out every night and turned people away.
Now it's back: bigger, better, hotter.
What is THAT'S HOT?
An immersive theater experience built around heat, in every sense.
A story with over 12 scripted variations, so no two nights unfold quite the same way. For sponsors, it's a partnership with a proven, sold-out show, built directly into the experience itself, not a logo on a poster.
WANT TO LEARN MORE? BOOK A CALL HEREThe story
A recent divorcee throws a hot sauce tasting party to prove to her friends she's TOTALLY FINE. (she's not)
- An MLM Barbie and her ex-athlete husband, wishing this was a "civilized" wine and cheese night.
- A wildcard travel photographer looking for a rager
- Her ex-husband's childhood best friend, fumbling through his first “friend divorce”
- Oh. And the audience. :)
Outnumbered, she calls in a hot sauce sommelier. What follows is a party that tests everyone's limits (emotional, spiritual, and physical) as the night gets hotter and hotter.
What makes THAT'S HOT different?
You eat hot sauce with the cast
Actors eat it onstage, you eat it in your seat. Everyone feels the burn together.
You're part of the party
Truth or dare, a secret confessional, dancing. It's a party you join, not a play you watch.
Every night ends differently
Your choices change the story, so people come back for the ending they missed.
You leave hooked on new sauces
Guests walk out braver, with new favorite brands they'd never heard of.
Audience reactions
Don't take our word for it!
Our hot partners
Seven sauces, tasted live every night
Our cool partners
What's in it for you
Pre-show tastings
Your sauce on the tasting table as guests arrive, run by your on-site rep or by our team.
A spot on the tasting menu
Featured in the show itself, as part of the menu the cast and audience eat through together.
Content you can use
UGC promo videos through the months of lead-up, plus an interview and feature for both of our channels.
Sales on the spot
Bottles for sale and raffled in-show, plus discount codes for every attendee.
HOT leads
A shared list of attendees: a room full of proven hot sauce fans.
Flexible investment
Partner early and invest in chunks to get the most out of the run.
What we did vs. what's next
What we did
What we're doing now
CURIOUS? LET'S TALK.
Let's talk
Tell us about your brand and what you want out of the run, and we'll shape the partnership around it.
Choose a sponsorship tier that works for you
We'll walk you through the options so you can pick the level of involvement that fits your goals and budget.
Start collaborating
Use the months of lead time to build the campaign together, then get your sauce tasted live through pre-show tastings, in-show features, raffles, and on-site activations.
Why live, experiential theater works
2026 is all about live experiences that help both artists and small brands make maximum impact by making real connections.
Global experiential marketing services market in 2026, projected to reach $71–73B by 2035
of consumers say a live brand experience makes them more inclined to buy from that brand
the word-of-mouth awareness for brands that use experiential marketing
of millennials would rather spend on a brand experience than buy through a traditional channel
For a hot sauce brand, that's not abstract. It's a room full of people tasting your product in person, in a format proven to convert.
Sponsorship at every scale
Brand partnerships with live theater aren't new, and they don't require a Broadway budget. A few real examples, at very different scales:
Chrysler × Motown: The Musical
An estimated $6–8 million in marketing value on Broadway — a national TV campaign, a Times Square billboard, and a limited-edition Chrysler 300 tied to the show, in what The New York Times called an unprecedented Broadway-corporate partnership.
John Proctor Is the Villain · Spirit Week
A recurring series of post-show brand activations at Broadway's Booth Theatre — Van Leeuwen Ice Cream brought a free-scoop truck, and later rounds brought Levain Bakery, Milk Bar, poppi, and SoulCycle for bake sales, giveaways, and a themed ride.
The Macallan × Behind The City
A limited-run immersive piece by Third Rail Projects (the company behind Then She Fell), built around a pre-show cocktail experience at the Macallan Speakeasy and an intimate, guided story for two people at a time.
The pattern holds at every size: a brand doesn't need to buy a Broadway marquee to make a real, memorable partnership with live theater. THAT'S HOT sits closest to that last example — small, immersive, and built for a brand to be part of the experience itself, not just a name on a poster.
A note from the creator of THAT'S HOT
THAT'S HOT is a labor of love.
A lifelong love of theater, parties, drama, and of course, spice. With over 12 scripted variations, unending artistic generosity, and training in tasting insanely hot sauces, the passion of this team, both onstage and off, cannot be overstated.
Working as an actor in TV soaps, Marvel projects, and Off-Broadway shows in New York, I wanted to build something that combines my love of performance with my lifelong obsession with hot sauce. I genuinely didn't know if it was going to work, so I bet on myself.
And it worked.
I wanted a play that feels like a party you'd want to go to every night. I wanted to make everyone have hotter sauce than they were comfortable with and be in it, in real time, together.
And we were.
Laughing, crying, whether from the story or the spice, I'm excited for us all to be in it, together again. I'd love for you to be a part of it.
MEET THE PRODUCTION TEAM
Mia Topalian
Actress, writer, theater-maker. On screen: Marvel's Runaways, Criminal Minds, All My Children, and a solid run as one of Lifetime thrillers' final girls. On stage: originated roles at Playwrights Horizons, The Tank, and Joe's Pub, plus a Hollywood International Film Festival lead actress selection for feature film. As a creator: devised award-winning original theater, including shows that have gone on to run on cruise lines. NYU Tisch-trained. Built THAT'S HOT to fuse her two obsessions: live performance and hot sauce.
IMDbMatthew Vari
Matt is originally from Chicago and began his career in Democratic politics before transitioning into entertainment marketing at Disney while pursuing filmmaking and producing stuff that "knocks your socks off." As Head of Sponsorships, he leads sponsor strategy and brand integration — securing enough hot sauce to make sure THAT'S HOT can run as long as The Lion King.
LinkedIn