Has there ever been video game characters in a theatre play ?

February 4, 2009 5:27 AM

Has there ever been video game characters in a theatre play ?

I'm nearing the completion of a stageplay. The characters are... characters of video games. Not copyrighted ones, I am not that stupid.

I am wondering : has another playwright gone down that road before ? Has there been video games (italian plumbers, etc.) in a theatre play ?

There has been video games adaptation for movies but on stage ?

(english is not my mother tongue so please forgive any mistakes I may have made).

posted by Baud to Media & Arts (8 answers total)

I suppose this was actually produced for TV, and it's utterly ridiculous, but it's also very theatrical and perhaps you'll find it interesting: Mario On Ice.
posted by oulipian at 6:03 AM on February 4, 2009

I've not seen this but I'm told We Will Rock You features characters which are websites.
posted by ezekieldas at 6:24 AM on February 4, 2009

Les Freres Corbusier recently did a very loose "adaptation" of Dance Dance Revolution. It ran off-off-broadway at the (now defunct?) Ohio Theatre in SoHo.

I wrote a plot synopsis and review from the point of view of someone who has extensively played the source material, if you need to know what you're up against.
posted by Remy at 6:59 AM on February 4, 2009

Would the Mega Man Opera by the Protomen count?
posted by The Whelk at 7:08 AM on February 4, 2009

Take a look at the Takarazuka Review, an all-female Japanese musical theater phenomenon dating back to the early 1900's. They do some crazy musical adaptations of novels and comics and cartoons and such, and in 2009 they're producing a show based on Capcom's Phoenix Wright.

(For the life of me I thought there had been other Takarazuka productions based on video games, but a cursory search doesn't turn anything up)
posted by drumcorpse at 8:21 AM on February 4, 2009

Hmm, it looks like Sega produced a limited run of a stage show based on their Sakura Taisen games (maybe that's what I was thinking of? I thought for sure I'd seen stills from a Sonic show or something. And who knew there was imitation Takarazuka?).

Also, I just noticed that the Phoenix Wright show is opening tomorrow. So there you go.
posted by drumcorpse at 8:43 AM on February 4, 2009

A student adapted the story of "The Secret of Monkey Island" for use as a school play in Maryland a few years ago.

http://www.worldofmi.com/features/miplay/
posted by dinx2582 at 8:49 AM on February 4, 2009

The Secret of Monkey Island: The Play

Fixed that URL for yez.
posted by dinx2582 at 8:50 AM on February 4, 2009