Video games on the theatre stage

[duda3]

Posted: 5/12/21 at 5:01pm

Does anyone know of any video games that have been adapted for the stage? Obviously these movies are everywhere (and often ****ty), but theatre productions? I think there's some huge potential. 
Personally I'd love to see God of War 5 or Bloodborne adapted. 

What video games would make good musicals?
Also, who would play the lead role? Who would write the score?

Updated On: 11/17/24 at 05:01 PM

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 5/12/21 at 5:06pm

Not off the top of my head, but a couple of years ago I was invited to a developmental lab of Other World, a musical about two people that get transported into a fictional video game. It was set to play Bucks County Playhouse in March 2020, but it was postponed the day before it was set to open.

[NameGreg]

Posted: 5/12/21 at 5:08pm

I believe somebody made a Portal musical. I may be remembering wrong and if it’s true I haven’t seen anything of it, but that’s a game that could work. More so the second one.

[darquegk]

Posted: 5/12/21 at 5:15pm

Capcom gave their official seal of approval to the Phoenix Wright: The Musical fan project many years ago, though it was just “company approved fan art.”

Pokémon: Gotta Catch ‘Em Live played Madison Square Garden and then did a national tour in 2000-2001.

I believe there are two unofficial operas based on The Legend of Zelda.

The Trail to Oregon, by Team Starkid, parodies Oregon Trail. There’s also a parody of Mario, which has changed names several times but was in NYMF a decade back.

There are some I’m surprised don’t have an official or unofficial musical production: Castlevania and Final Fantasy are sort of begging for it.

[imeldasturn]

Posted: 5/12/21 at 5:19pm

There have been some in Japan, like Musical: Touken Ranbu and Persona 3: The Weird Masquerade. Wikipedia has a short list:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Musicals_based_on_video_games

Not at all related, but a decade ago the Menier Chocolate Factory revived Pippin with a crap concept in which everything happened in a videogame/virtual reality

Updated On: 5/12/21 at 05:19 PM

[darquegk]

Posted: 5/12/21 at 5:31pm

East/West Players did a video game Pippin a decade before THAT.

[missthemountains]

Posted: 5/12/21 at 8:06pm

I recently learned of Pellets, Cherries, and Lies which sounds interesting.

I'd really love to see someone tackle Ghouls and Goblins for the stage.

Also, I weirdly could also see a cirque du soleil version of Sonic working. If they could make Spongebob work, I'm sure they could make Sonic work. I'm just imagining giant golden rings suspended in the air and what not? Visually you could do a lot with it.

Darquegk, would love to know more about the Zelda operas. It looks like the Mario musical was called Claudio Quest.

While I don't think it was an official adaptation, Alex Timber's Dance Dance Revolution certainly was an homage to the videogame at least.

 

[trentsketch]

Posted: 5/13/21 at 4:35am

The Tarazuka Revue in Japan have done 3 licensed Phoenix Wright musicals. The first two have DVDs available and all three have cast recordings. 

There's a whole genre of anime/manga/video game musical adaptations in Japan referred to as 2.5D that really gained a lot of traction in the past decade. They're musicals adapted from 2D mediums in Japanese pop culture. Most are anime or manga, but a few are more influenced by video games. It's pretty fascinating to dig into.

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 5/13/21 at 6:50am

A Dragon Quest ballet premiered in Japan in 1995. It doesn't follow the direct plot of any of the games, though it features a character from the fourth one.

The band The Protomen composed a rock opera based on characters from Capcom's Mega Man series. It premiered in 2003 and has been recorded.

 

[copskid949]

Posted: 5/13/21 at 8:10am

I’ve recently gotten into the Danganronpa series of visual novels, and the first game (if cut down to its most basic elements) has at least some potential. You’d really need to streamline the story though, considering the plot would have to solve five or six different mysteries over the course of its runtime. I know there was a Japanese play adaptation, and perhaps it would work much better without singing, but the game’s soundtrack is enough to convince me there’s something there!

NameGreg said: "I believe somebody made a Portal musical. I may be remembering wrong and if it’s true I haven’t seen anything of it, but that’s a game that could work. More so the second one."

I was literally about to say Portal! That specific production you’re referring to is a parody show where they gave Broadway songs new lyrics. However, the idea to adapt this material is REALLY cool. I think if they got Jonathan Coulton to write further material (he’s been on Broadway before as one of the composers for SpongeBob), you could easily expand on “Still Alive” “Want You Gone” or any of the other songs he wrote for the games.

The only issue with the idea is that you have to deal with a Chekhov’s Portal Gun. It’s a great tool when you’re playing the game and (spoiler) it does factor into the defeat of the final boss, but it’s not super necessary. You’d really have to not only justify it, which can be done from multiple angles, but you’d also have to make sure the audience gets the idea that your protagonist is moving around in that way.

There’s also the issue of why video games are so hard to adapt: main characters are avatars for your own experience, and oftentimes super boring on their own merit. Chell is a character who‘s made to be personal, to the point where she canonically chooses to be mute out of spite, giving her a fairly malleable personality.

If they can get over those hurdles, though? That’s a story worth telling.

Updated On: 5/13/21 at 08:10 AM

[Bruce J Van Tassel]

Posted: 5/13/21 at 12:34pm

Most visual novel style games lend themselves better to a stage adaptation. Like Danganronpa, an underrated series of games with a great story, or Ace Attorney which also has been mentioned.
They focus more on plot and story.
Certain games like Resident Evil or Silent Hill have the narratives that are worthy as well.
The issue is alot of games are so action heavy with long breaks in narrative or very very thin narratives
Bioshock could also make excellent material. Compelling and a great finish.

[JenaLouisa]

Posted: 11/4/21 at 3:23am

There are many different genres of games, there are also some that are turned into musicals. I also wish the mahjong game could do this.

[BroadwayRox3588]

Posted: 11/4/21 at 5:35am

Give me Backyard Baseball: The Musical with Lin-Manuel Miranda as Pablo Sanchez.

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 11/23/22 at 12:24pm

I'm surprised we've never gotten a Mario musical

[darquegk]

Posted: 11/23/22 at 12:58pm

So am I, especially with how vaudeville stages and musical theatre are a recurring motif in the series from the eighties to today. 

[DooWahDiddy]

Posted: 11/23/22 at 1:17pm

fashionguru_23 said: "I'm surprised we've never gotten a Mario musical"

I assistant music directed one, a few years ago. It was a one-day private reading for investors, and had some pretty big names in it. But after that it kind of fell off the radar, and I haven't heard anything about it since. 

[darquegk]

Posted: 11/23/22 at 2:48pm

Wow! Was it any good?

[DooWahDiddy]

Posted: 11/23/22 at 3:57pm

darquegk said: "Wow! Was it any good?"

It was cute! My feeling (i.e. complete conjecture on my part) is that he (the composer) probably had trouble going further with it because of copyright issues. Nintendo is notoriously strict about their property, and the show used names like Mario, Luigi, etc, and even threw in musical quotes from the original game into the score. Good for a laugh during the show, probably not good for avoiding a cease-and-desist letter. Again, just a guess; I have no idea if that happened.

I seem to recall there was another show that avoided using names; it was a little more like "You know who these characters are supposed to be, but we're not going to name them". I didn't work on that one and don't know if it was any good or what happened with it.

[darquegk]

Posted: 11/23/22 at 9:28pm

Oh! Are we talking Claudio Quest? I was thinking this was an industry development of an official Mario project.

[DooWahDiddy]

Posted: 11/23/22 at 11:48pm

darquegk said: "Oh! Are we talking Claudio Quest? I was thinking this was an industry development of an official Mario project."

No, never heard of that one. This used all the characters from the Mario Bros. franchise, but (to my knowledge) was not sanctioned by Nintendo. Sorry if I gave the wrong impression! It was a cute show, and the presentation had a future Tony award winner in it; I just don't know how much progress you can make when you're up against such a formidable foe as Nintendo. If it came straight from them that would be and entirely different (and awesome) thing...

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 11/25/22 at 9:25am

The Oregon Trail by Bekah Brunstetter isn't exactly an adaptation of the game, but it uses someone playing the game, being sucked into the game, and jumping back and forth through time as a way of analyzing themes of depression and how different people have had to cope with it throughout their lives.

[lukaernandes]

Posted: 6/29/23 at 8:41am

fashionguru_23 said: "I'm surprised we've never gotten a Mario musical"


Yes, I actually thought about it too. I think that the adaptation would have been very popular. Maybe one day we will see it. And it's interesting because today we have so many games, but I don't see them on stage, and it's better to leave games and theater separate. Besides, what do you guys usually play? I like shooters, and from time to time also play casino games. Some time ago, I found this site here where I read about casinos with Best Deposit $1 get $20 Casino Bonuses, and that info helped me a lot because I was actually looking for a new casino to play. So now I'm playing at Spin Samurai, which is for sure one of the best so far.

Updated On: 6/30/23 at 08:41 AM