Every year, NYU Shanghai’s Reality Show returns with songs, stories, and a new cast ready to share what lies ahead for first-year students. This year, the show took the stage on September 16 for the broader NYU Shanghai community and on September 17 for the Class of 2030.
A tradition since 2006, the Reality Show is performed across NYU’s three global campuses. The musical uses humor, music, and sketches to reflect the challenges and surprises of college life.
NYU President Linda Mills, one of the founders of the Reality Show, attended this year’s show at NYU Shanghai and addressed the Class of 2030.
“One of the great rewards of an NYU education is the chance to build meaningful relationships with people who are unlike yourselves,” she said. “Find someone different from yourself. It won't take much. You may just discover you're seeing the whole world unknown.”
For every incoming class of students, college brings challenges, doubts, and unexpected connections, but the Reality Show reminds students that they never have to navigate them alone.
But while the show returns each year, the story is always evolving. This year’s show is almost entirely new, with every song and sketch freshly created to reflect the concerns of today's students, from AI anxiety and global uncertainties to money management and changing friendships.
This summer, 10 NYU Shanghai students joined cast members from NYU in New York and NYU Abu Dhabi for two months of training in New York City. Working with a professional creative team from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, they spent hours each day creating, rehearsing, and reimagining what this year’s Reality Show would convey. Then each group returns to their campus to perform it for their community.
Perhaps unexpectedly, many of this year’s NYU Shanghai cast members are STEM majors. Basel Abdallah ’29 from Palestine came to see that background as an advantage rather than a limitation: “In science, you really appreciate how systems work together, and that makes it easier for the cast to collaborate and give each other space to create.”
Director Dylan Rose Smith, an NYU Tisch alum who performed in the show twice as a student, said the Reality Show helps new students find their way. “It helps students absorb information through feeling rather than data or matter-of-fact learning,” she said. “It makes them feel seen.”
Maralmaa Tsolmon ’29 from Mongolia remembered her amazement watching the Reality Show as a first-year student. “I thought, maybe one day I could be on that stage, able to influence other students,” she said.
But at her audition, she nearly lost her nerve. “There’s no way [the judges] are going to like my voice after hearing theirs,” she remembered thinking. The callback was no easier: she was sure she had failed. The encouragement she received from other students, though, gave her confidence. Another student reassured her: “Yours was so good, it touched my heart,” and in the end, she received an email telling her she had won a role.
But winning a part in the show was only the beginning. The next step was working together to create the songs and skits that would be featured in this year’s Reality Show.
Returning cast member Hakob Khachikyan ’28 from Armenia said being authentic was at the heart of this year’s experience. “Last year, I was focused on overcoming my fear of performing and being vulnerable,” he recalled. ”This time, I had the opportunity to dive deeper.”
Hakob said he and the other performers wanted to share a message with the Class of 2030: “We want to tell them that it’s okay to change, it’s okay not to know what you’re changing into, and that you don’t have to figure it all out alone.”
He and the other performers embraced “authentic vulnerability” to develop this year’s show—the things they struggled with, laughed about, or wished they had known when they first arrived on campus.
Wang Shunqi ’29 from Jining, Shandong turned the hurdle of communicating across cultures into a song she called “Alien-phobia.” “Making friends with those from different cultures may seem intimidating,” she said. “I think it’s important to reflect on why the barrier exists and think about how we can break them.”
While they worked together developing this year’s show, the students also created new friendships. During a group activity designed to break down barriers, the cast members found a sense of connection. One student drew a card with the instruction: Hug someone. Soon, everyone joined in, turning a simple hug into a group embrace. Maralmaa said it was a core memory of the summer. That was the moment, she said, when she felt, “This is friendship, this is us.”
Alina Subanbaeva ’29 from Kyrgyzstan says that bond has remained, even after the group said their goodbyes: “I think it's not only that we, as the Shanghai cast, became a team; I feel like we really bonded with the New York and Abu Dhabi casts too,” she said. “I feel like I have family all around the world now.”
For this year’s performers, being a part of the Reality Show was also a chance to see themselves in a new light—as performers, creators, and as members of a community.
Zhang Xintian ’29 from Shanghai found herself developing into a more confident creator: “Now, I don’t let imperfections stop me from creating or expressing myself,” she said. “I’ve come to see creativity and the performing arts as a way of expressing who I am.”
On the stage, they were not only performers, but students who have lived through the experiences they portrayed. That may be what makes the Reality Show a tradition: not that the same story is told every year, but that every year, the students have the chance to tell their own.
Reality Show 2026 Cast
Basel Abdallah ’29
Aquila Ali, NYU ’27
Deandra Hollingsworth ’27
Hakob Khachikyan ’28
Li Xudong ’29
Alina Subanbaeva ’29
Maralmaa Tsolmon ’29
Wang Shunqi ’29
Tamirlan Zhairbay ’28
Zhang Xintian ’29
Creative Team
Director & Choreographer - Dylan Rose Smith
Program Director - Matthew Dean Marsh
Music Direction - Matthew Dean Marsh & Noah Schlondorff
Stage Manager - Hayes Sagalyn, Tarun Yanamandra & Wang Zhehan
Piano - Noah Schlondorff
Executive Producer - Linda G. Mills
Producer - Zoe Ragouzeos
Originally Conceived by Elizabeth Swados
Production Coordinators - Zhao Zige and Shelly Lu
If you need someone to talk to, please reach out to the counseling resources available from the Student Health Center. You can also call the 24-hour Wellness Exchange hotline number at +86-21-2059-9999.