All the subway’s a stage for New York City’s “showtime” performers. But on many train lines, that stage is changing.
The MTA’s rollout of modern cars on the A and C lines in 2023 brought a suite of new features for riders, like wider doors, more standing room, foldable seats and hand poles that split in two. But for transit acrobats like 23-year-old Gerard Murphy, the new trains required new choreography.
Murphy, who performs on the lines with a crew of other dancers, said he used to design his routine around the original, single poles.
“With the single pole, you could do a lot. It’s one pole, you could go crazy,” he said. “But [now] it’s two, you can’t really do as much, but you could make it work.”
He said he used to be able to seamlessly twirl on any part of the single pole. Now he’s relegated to the bottom half, just under where the pole splits, spinning just barely a foot off the ground.
Flips, which Murphy would pull off by grabbing both the vertical poles and the horizontal overhead handrails, are now trickier.
In one of his signature moves, known as “flagging,” Murphy hangs horizontally from the pole in a straight line. He can still do the move with a split pole, but had to extend his wingspan with one hand above the split and one hand below.
Emily Nadal/Gothamist
Murphy usually performs with a crew of other dancers that includes Shamel Carasco, 25, and Stefan Britt, 29, both of whom he met while out dancing. Their performance is more like a professional basketball game than a ballet. Each performer has a position to play and they move together as a team.
Britt, the most outgoing of the bunch, acts as emcee during the performance. He introduces his friends before their solos, and hypes up the audience by cheering and clapping for every flip and spin. Carasco and Murphy give Britt the same treatment when it's his turn to show off his “Litefeet” number.
“Every one of us has our own superpower,” Britt explained.
Each performance lasts just two minutes.
Love them or hate them, the city’s subway showtime performers have for decades dangled from poles, flipped and danced inside the trains in exchange for tips. But new train car designs aren’t the only way the tradition has changed. Lower ridership since the pandemic, a shift away from cash and increased law enforcement have forced the performers to adapt.
Murphy, Carasco and Britt perform in the transit system nearly every day, sometimes with each other, rarely by themselves. They said they always stay out performing until everyone in their crew has earned at least $100. Some days it takes six hours for them to take in that much — and in some cases they all walk away with hundreds more.
Emily Nadal/Gothamist
“ It’s not all about the money,” Carasco said. “We just dance for fun. Just put smiles on people's faces. They’ve never seen things like that before.” For the most part, the dancers said they get positive reviews in the form of joyous applause, laughter or cash. And as cash is no longer king in the subways, the group solicits payments through platforms like Zelle, Venmo or Cash App.
“ Tourists, they show big love to us 'cause they never seen it before. They're really excited,” Carasco added.
“As long as you come off respectful, you shouldn’t have a problem,” Britt said of the added subway cops. “Cause some of the officers will be like ‘Nah, just go to the next cart.”
Curasco said police seem to make their audiences feel safer, especially tourists.
The crew also dances for tips at major tourist hubs like Times Square — right in the heart of the city’s theater district — but they all agree there’s nothing better than a captive audience.
Curious Commuter
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“How come some local trains suddenly become express? I waited for a C train toward Euclid Avenue at High Street in Brooklyn today, and five A trains came before a C. Once I was on the C, they announced it would be running as express from Hoyt-Schermerhorn! Turned my 20-minute commute into an hour.”
- Catherine in Brooklyn
More often than not, a train switches from express to local — or vice versa — if something has gone wrong on a stretch of tracks, like a major equipment failure or someone being struck by the train.
When one of those incidents happens on a local track, the MTA will divert all service on the line to the express tracks to keep service moving until crews resolve the issue. Sometimes that takes just a few minutes, sometimes it can take hours.
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We're also talking about...
This year’s drop in traffic deaths. New data shows 87 people were killed by motorists across the five boroughs during the first six months of 2025, down sharply from the 128 deaths reported over the same period last year.
“While one traffic fatality is one too many, whether you are a pedestrian, a cyclist or a driver, our streets are safer than ever and the important work must continue.”
NJ Transit fare hike. The cost to ride the system’s trains, light rail and buses went up by 3% this week — a modest increase compared to last year’s 15% jump.
More G train shutdowns. There will be no G train service between Court Square and Bedford-Nostrand Avenues on select weeknights and weekends starting July 14 through Aug. 18 while the MTA resumes work on its long-running signal modernization project.
Listen to us talk about all this!Download our app and tune in to “All Things Considered” around 4 p.m. today. And catch up on last week’s segment in case you missed it.
