Summary
Two artistic mediums that have a woefully small history of crossover are video games and musicals. And while it’s fun to envision what video games would work well on the stage, it’s equally as entertaining to imagine what musicals would benefit from being adapted into code and transformed into a game.
Musicals are, by their nature, a celebration of emotion and spectacle in storytelling. There’s no reason why, in the hands of talented developers, these same stories couldn’t work as interactive entertainment. And we’re not talking about the immersive theatre kind, either.
7Ride The Cyclone
Welcome To Uranium City
Ride the Cyclone is a lesser-known musical by Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell that focuses on a group of teenagers who navigate the afterlife after dying from a roller coaster accident. It’s a strange concept that leads to an equally bizarre (yet beautiful) musical, and there is certainly the possibility for an interesting video game adaptation in there.
Rollercoaster Tycoon fans have probably already signed on after hearing the potential of creating their very own theme park ride of doom, but the characters’ larger-than-death personalities would lend themselves nicely to an adventure-style game as well. Whatever genre, a Ride the Cyclone video game would likely be a thrill ride worth dying for.
6Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street
A Cut Above The Rest
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is one of Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim’s most beloved musicals. This moody slasher musical has all the ingredients of a glorious, gory Victorian tragedy, complete with romance, song, and a fair share of murder.
A Sweeney Todd video game could work off the musical’s setting and premise to create an atmospheric action-horror experience oozing withVictorian England charm. If nothing else, it would make for an interesting, if inaccurate, hair-cut simulator.
5Little Shop Of Horrors
Never Feed The Plants
Some of the best video game settings are those that use their small size and density to their advantage. The titular little shop from Little Shop of Horrors and the surrounding streets in Skid Row could be filled with neat little minigames and experiences to add so much character to a game set in this universe.
And then, of course, there’s Audrey II – the greatest final boss fight in musical history. Getting to battle this giant ferny fiend in a video game would be so much fun. There could even be multiple endings, similar to how the original musical and its movie adaptation differ with how well things end up for the main characters.
4Camelot
The Once And Future King
It’s hard to find many musicals that lean hard into classical fantasy, but Camelot embraces its King Arthur roots like a sword in a stone. Telling the well-known tale of Arthur, Guenevere, and Lancelot, the musical goes hard with its ambitious concept and, for the most part, excels as an adaptation of this epic story.
Do you know what else would be an epic adaptation? A Camelot video game, of course! The game could work as a fantasy RPG where you play as Arthur or one of the knights of the Round Table, exploring the kingdom, undertaking treacherous quests, and defeating mythical creatures. However, just like the musical, the heart of the game will remain in the tragic love triangle that is the eventual undoing of a once mighty king and his kingdom.
3Phantom Of The Opera
Think Of It Fondly
No preamble here: a Phantom of the Opera stealth game would win game of the year. Okay, that might be a bit hyperbolic, but it’s hard to argue that a game where you get to sneak around the Palais Garnier as the Opera Ghost wouldn’t be a grand old time.
There have already been some iconic video game moments set during an opera, so why not just base an entire game on one? The Phantom could have pseudo-magical abilities, much like in the musical, helping him pull the strings behind all the mischief and mystery that takes place in the opera house.
2Hadestown
It’s A Tragedy
Anaïs Mitchell’s achingly beautiful musical retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth took the Broadway world by storm and continues to be one of the most beloved musicals of more recent times. Hadestown has a legion of passionate fans who would, at the very least, be interested in giving a video game adaptation a go.
Gaming already has a rich history oftitles based on Greek mythology, and Hadestown would fit right in. While the question of what gaming genre would work for a romantic tragedy is a fair one, the only correct answer is a hack n’ slash action game where Orpheus beats up the minions of the underworld with his lyre. In other words, give us a Hades and Hadestown crossover, you cowards.
1Wicked
Defying Adaptation Logic
Hear us out. A Wicked game based in an explorable Shiz University – where you canattend classes and form relationships,Persona-style – followed by a second half where you get to fly around the land of Oz as Elphaba would be amazing.
There is so much potential for fascinating gameplay concepts in a Wicked game that someone just needs to make it happen. Ideally, a developer with experience creating open worlds filled with wonder and whimsy. So… Nintendo? Yeah, Nintendo.
