What do you want (game/movie/etc.) based on The Astonishing?

[Progmetty]

None of these, just a very elaborate and masterful stage production on the tour itself.

[mikemangioy]

I'd either like a Disney movie or a musical. Both will do. But really, when I imagine the story in my head while listening, all I view is Disney-styled animation, especially stuff like Hunchback Of Notre Dame.

[JRuless]

What I would like to see if the CD version is just a framework of the plot(just the odd chapters)  and a future release of a novel with new music that could be perfectly placed between the passages.

[Rickharris1011]

Warning: I love musicals

Artistically, I think it most closely matches a musical...more so than Tommy (an awesome musical - first one I ever saw) or American Idiot did   More like Once, which translated amazingly to stage (though I thought the movie was incredible) The former made an awesome musical (albeit a shitty film).  I did not see the latter. For astonishing, I see the band sharing part of the stage with the actors and  the orchestra is in the pit.  That way the more interesting musical passages are front and center when they should be (like JP's god solo at the end of A New Beginning).  It would still take a bit of rewriting, as Act II pretty much happens over the course of a couple of hours, but...   

The stage is the best place to capture the amazing dynamics of the album with so much more power than a movie or graphic novel.  I think the Last Farewell would absolutely crush on stage.  A bring down the house number.  And imagine how powerful A New Day is with a full cast singing.  Actually, Act II would probably be much better on stage than on the record - so many anthem songs. 

Might be tough to find musicians, though.

Business side is always tough in theater...but if Rock of Ages or The Wedding Singer could make it on Broadway (the latter is truly truly awful)...

[pantsofeternity]

Hi, been lurking forever, but finally joined just so I could post this.  (Not an indication that it's gotta be a really good post, trust me.)

Much as I think a stage adaptation would be really cool, I doubt its plausibility for several reasons.

• It would be a lot of work, and I think JP especially is gonna be pretty exhausted after putting together this album and tour.  Musicals take serious time to make happen, and it would require a big chunk of JP and JR's time.  Despite some comments I've seen to the contrary, it would take a LOT of work to ready this for the stage.  It isn't good to go as is -- it was written to be listened to, multiple times, while reading along with the extra text on the website to get the full story... on stage, the audience needs to understand everything in real time.  Scenes and songs might have to be rearranged; lyrics might have to be edited; new material would be written and other parts would be excised.  The key here is the stage version would be an *adaptation*, not just a slightly more elaborate version of the album in concert.  So I think if the band is ever interested, it would be several years down the road.
• It would cost a lot of money.  Musicals are expensive (and most of the time, a terrible investment), and it's not clear who would finance such a venture.  (It doesn't seem like a wise financial choice for the band or the label, for example.)
• Realistically, this isn't something I'd expect to see on Broadway.  It's never going to have the popular appeal that something needs to become a hit.  I could see it doing a limited run off-Broadway or at a regional theater, but let's face it -- DT isn't mainstream, so this doesn't have a built-in audience like American Idiot might have.  Who is the show for?  Just fans of Dream Theater?  To survive, the stage adaptation would need to cast a wider net, and similar to the financial situation, it's not clear how that might happen.

Nonetheless, when they need a librettist to help script the adaptation, I'll be waiting anxiously by the phone.

[camzmac]

• It would cost a lot of money.  Musicals are expensive (and most of the time, a terrible investment), and it's not clear who would finance such a venture.  (It doesn't seem like a wise financial choice for the band or the label, for example.)
• Realistically, this isn't something I'd expect to see on Broadway.  It's never going to have the popular appeal that something needs to become a hit.  I could see it doing a limited run off-Broadway or at a regional theater, but let's face it -- DT isn't mainstream, so this doesn't have a built-in audience like American Idiot might have.  Who is the show for?  Just fans of Dream Theater?  To survive, the stage adaptation would need to cast a wider net, and similar to the financial situation, it's not clear how that might happen.

These points definitely make it a steep uphill battle to get a musical done.

With regards to your last point, a tiny step towards putting The Astonishing into the public's mind would be for Roadrunner to get Our New World on rock radio ASAP. This won't make DT a mainstream band by any means, but it would put them a little bit closer to the mainstream, which can only help.

[Vandalism]

I can easily see a guitar hero RPG or something coming out of this where you are Gabriel and you try to nail whatever tracks are there in Faythe's music player while gaining skills like Deafening screams, resurrection etc. with the original plot in place of course.

[Tick]

How cool would that be? Is there any chance of it?

[bosk1]

You mean, aside from the fact that the images in that poster have nothing whatsoever to do with the story? 

[Tick]

You mean, aside from the fact that the images in that poster have nothing whatsoever to do with the story? 

Yes, besides that!

[TAC]

Other: Saturday morning cartoon.

[Hal Incandenza]

Of all the places to bump into the Black Angel poster.

I'm down for a graphic novel much more than a regular novelization. I'm not sure the story would translate that well to straight prose, and I think they'd have a better shot at getting a quality product that matches JP's vision.

I'd also love to see them do a special concert with a staging of the parts, all covered by different singers, then released on DVD and as a live album. Not a full musical with all the extra stuff that would require, which is pretty unlikely based on cost.

[JMSE]

Musical. The way it is written, it's pretty much ready to be staged.

This.

[pantsofeternity]

Musical. The way it is written, it's pretty much ready to be staged.

This.

Not to rain on parades (Broadway reference?), but I don't think it's anywhere near ready for the stage.  All of the stuff that isn't in the song text -- the information from the descriptions on the website -- would have to be added as new lyrics or spoken dialogue for the story to make sense.  As an album, where we can read along with the lyric sheet and other supplemental information, take multiple listens, discuss and analyze, it's great.  But as a stage musical, the audience has to understand everything on the first listen, and that just isn't happening here.

Furthermore, what happens during the instrumental sections?  Dance?  Action?  Scene changes?  Sure, for some of them, but other sections would have to be shortened or rearranged or cut altogether.  A *lot* of additional writing and rewriting is needed before this is stage-ready.  How does the narrator function?  The ensemble?  All of this needs to be figured out.  Not to mention reorchestrations, key changes based on singers who aren't JLB doing every part, plot points that need to be rearranged to suit costume and set changes...

I mean, it's certainly written using the blueprint of a stage musical, especially a sung-through rock opera.  But to actually take the stage... that would definitely require months, if not years of work!

Sorry if I'm going off on this a little much... musicals are my thing.   Carry on.

[Pragmaticcircus]

I want a sitcom 

[erwinrafael]

Musical. The way it is written, it's pretty much ready to be staged.

This.

Not to rain on parades (Broadway reference?), but I don't think it's anywhere near ready for the stage.  All of the stuff that isn't in the song text -- the information from the descriptions on the website -- would have to be added as new lyrics or spoken dialogue for the story to make sense.  As an album, where we can read along with the lyric sheet and other supplemental information, take multiple listens, discuss and analyze, it's great.  But as a stage musical, the audience has to understand everything on the first listen, and that just isn't happening here.

Furthermore, what happens during the instrumental sections?  Dance?  Action?  Scene changes?  Sure, for some of them, but other sections would have to be shortened or rearranged or cut altogether.  A *lot* of additional writing and rewriting is needed before this is stage-ready.  How does the narrator function?  The ensemble?  All of this needs to be figured out.  Not to mention reorchestrations, key changes based on singers who aren't JLB doing every part, plot points that need to be rearranged to suit costume and set changes...

I mean, it's certainly written using the blueprint of a stage musical, especially a sung-through rock opera.  But to actually take the stage... that would definitely require months, if not years of work!

Sorry if I'm going off on this a little much... musicals are my thing.   Carry on.

Yes, it would take months or even a year of work, but as you said, it is already structured as such. Most of the work that needs to be done would be in the direction, acting, the stage production, the dance, etc...but I don't think there really is much that needs to be done in terms of the script. Much of the new material we got outside the album can be shown through the acting, not through an additional spoken script.

I'm imagining how fun the dance part would be during the A New Beginning instrumental, and while Nafaryus is doing his thing in Three Days.

[pantsofeternity]

Well, just as an example, there would have to be some way of conveying that the music player belonged to "Bug"... it's not like she can just hold it up and have everyone in the audience read it.  There would have to be *some* additional text, or the "Bug" moment in "New Beginning" will be really confusing.  (As it was to me before I had access to the longer descriptions.)

[erwinrafael]

Well, just as an example, there would have to be some way of conveying that the music player belonged to "Bug"... it's not like she can just hold it up and have everyone in the audience read it.  There would have to be *some* additional text, or the "Bug" moment in "New Beginning" will be really confusing.  (As it was to me before I had access to the longer descriptions.)

Or they could just flash Bug as a background graphic (in an artistic manner of course) during the "my music player..." part of Act of Faythe.

[pantsofeternity]

Well, just as an example, there would have to be some way of conveying that the music player belonged to "Bug"... it's not like she can just hold it up and have everyone in the audience read it.  There would have to be *some* additional text, or the "Bug" moment in "New Beginning" will be really confusing.  (As it was to me before I had access to the longer descriptions.)

Or they could just flash Bug as a background graphic (in an artistic manner of course) during the "my music player..." part of Act of Faythe.

Wary though I am of stage productions that lean heavily on projections (not that I haven't seen it done very well), I am curious to see if this will be part of the visuals during the tour.