What video games would make good musicals

A Zelda musical could be pretty great. Ahrens and Flaherty would write the score; I think Ben Platt/Colton Ryan could be convincible as Link, and Allison Bailey would be Zelda herself.

/Gravity Rush/Gravity Rush 2 is another one that could transfer to stage, if carefully thought out of course. Sondheim woild write the score (unlikely as it is), and Kat would be played by Kathryn Gallagher. Jasmine Cephas-Jones would make a perfect Robin.

stupid triple post

Updated On: 10/11/17 at 08:16 AM

I haven’t played a video game in years, but as a kid they were basically my life. The problem is that they are an interactive media - you spend most of a video game walking through tunnels shooting stuff, there’s not a ton of plot development, and more importantly, there are no themes to explore and discuss. Games don’t make you feel. Usually when you do, it’s because of an emotional attachment to a character who dies. Newer games are changing this, but like I said... I haven’t played a video game in years.

That being said, here’s some thoughts. I don’t think any of these are great ideas, I’m just spitballing.

-Fire Emblem: Epic Battles! Tragedy! Throw in a love story, and you’ve got a good basis for a show. It could be like LotR just way shorter and more exciting.

-PaRappa the Rapper: 90 minutes, no intermission, just make up a goofy plot and the rest does its self.

-Castlevania: Vampires! Vampire... hunters! Dracula! Gothic aesthetic! Sexy demons! This has the most potential to be epic and deep and beautiful, IMO. Lets you talk about death, afterlife, and family (The Belmont’s are born into being vampire killers... it’s a family business... rough gig). I imagine it would end up being pretty close to Phantom... just with less Opera and more fight scenes.

Updated On: 10/11/17 at 08:38 AM

I've got two. First, I'd love to see a revamped and reconsidered Pokémon musical twenty years later; I think there's an interesting parallel between the franchise's evolution from a kiddie cash-in to this improbably deep strategic all-ages thing, and the protagonist's somewhat infamous refusal to age or learn even as the franchise moves on around him. A reverse Peter Pan scenario almost- to be the only ageless Lost Boy in a world moving on around you.

And second, what I wouldn't give to work on a splashy, lightweight Super Mario show. The characters are canonically actors (the old games were explicitly staged as plays), commedia dell'arte types playing their fixed roles, Marx Brothers style, across a series of adventures and genres. That Marx lightness and goofiness could make for a fun, unpredictable show... and that score! Some of the best jazz, ragtime and old-school Broadway sounding music of the past few decades has come from the scores to the Super Mario games, even obscure ones. Listen to the end credits music to Super Mario World: even synthesized for the Super NES, it's structured for the rise and fall build of a huge dance number.

It's not a video game, but my college is doing a play right now called She Kills Monsters, that's about Dungeons and Dragons. It alludes a lot to fantasy and geek culture.

There are some really wonderful narrative driven indie games that could make for interesting musicals.

Gone Home could be told in flashbacks quite effectively.

I think Braid's story and its twist ending would be a wonderful spin on the romantic drama onstage.

Life is Strange has some potential as a suspense story onstage, though I think a play with music would work better there.

The Zelda universe (obviously not indie) could sustain and original story based on the mythos and all the musical elements of the series.

Same with Animal Crossing. That could be a cute slice of life musical about an upcoming festival and life in the town.

If you haven't seen it, the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney musical conceived by Takarazuka Revue in Japan is wonderful.

None of them. Can’t we keep the shred of dignity that Broadway has left?

Successful musicals have been made out of low-budget B horror flicks, penny dreadfuls, and Sunday morning comics, and there are video games that are as elegant and thematically rich as any other work of art. I don't see why a visionary creative team couldn't unlock the potential for an adaptation of a video game source material.

Quit the cultural elitist posturing- particularly when it comes to Broadway, which has never been a bastion of highbrow art.

The central stumbling block for any adaptation of a video game isn't the content of the game itself, but rather the fact you are taking something specifically created to be interacted with and immersed in and removing that quality entirely. It's like... taking a delicious meal and adapting it into a paragraph describing the food. The video games that would seem to me most ripe for an adaptation are the ones that are particularly story-heavy, rather than gameplay-heavy.

Updated On: 10/11/17 at 12:55 PM

raddersons said: "I haven’t played a video game in years, but as a kid they were basically my life. The problem is that they are an interactive media - you spend most of a video game walking through tunnels shooting stuff, there’s not a ton of plot development, and more importantly, there are no themes to explore and discuss. Games don’t make you feel."

I must 100% disagree. It seems you've been away from gaming for quite some time. I would argue that video games are our newest and youngest art form and the past decade has been transformative in terms of level of storytelling. I've balled my eyes out during "The Last of Us" and TellTale's "The Walking Dead." The gorgeous "Shadow of the Colossus" and "Journey" were like impressionistic paintings that tugged at your hart without speaking a word. The story in the new "Tomb Raider" reboot was so captivating, the new movie is copying it nearly beat for beat.

The issue with adapting many modern games for the stage would not be the lack of compelling storytelling power. It's the fact that so many of them are sprawling tales with many locales and set pieces. Figuring out one than you could present in a contained space would be key, and the main difficulty.

I agree trentsketch that "Gone Home" could be a beautiful memory play.

The right director could make "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture" a compelling play with music (much of the music is already there!).

"The Wolf Among Us" would also adapt nicely to the stage and would be heaven for the designers, though like the ones above I guess I see it more as a play than a musical.

Surprised no one has mentioned Final Fantasy yet. I don't know which one, since there are so many and they all have different narratives. But in general I think the franchise has the potential to become a really interesting musical. The music for those games is always so gorgeous and integral to the experience. Plus, the stories are usually very rich with emotion, and the opportunities for magical stage visuals would be abundant.

I would love to see something from the Metal Gear Solid timeline being attempted.

I hate Life is Strange, but I think it could be a really solid musical if they fix the dialogue and plot holes. I could see them doing really fantastic things with time travel.

I can absolutely see The Last of Us working on stage- but I'm not sure a musical of it would work out too well. On that thought, though, I'm reminded of the bonus content that had Merle Dandridge and Troy Baker singing through their last scene and it was wonderfully hilarious (would definitely ruin the mood!)

Thinking video games can't make good plays/musicals is quite an elitist statement, as is thinking only children play them. Guess Hamilton is a piece of dull history that only 76 year-old college history professors enjoy, then.

James885 said: "Surprised nobody's mentioned Kingdom Hearts. The franchise's universe is expansive enough at this point that I think there's a enough material to draw from to make a musical."



I considered mentioning it. Kingdom Hearts is extremely near and dear to me. Like I said about the Final Fantasy series above, it's a profoundly emotional story that could easily translate well to being musicalized - perhaps even more so than Final Fantasy. I didn't mention it because I think the Disney element would just make things too messy, and wouldn't translate well onstage at all. But I think you're correct that they could use the original characters, as well as the expansive lore, to craft a new story, or an altered version of the original, perhaps excluding Disney characters altogether.