The Hunger Games, Wembley Theatre

I still cannot imagine how turning it into a musical could ever work. A bunch of kids singing songs about killing each other? I loved the book, films were rather pleasing for visualization and hit-on casting in some parts, but making the light-hearted entertainment out of this would ruin the whole thing unless they plan to go into black humour territory.. ))

I agree that musicals aren't always light-hearted, but almost all of them have some uplifting big numbers - think of "Do you hear the people sing?" for example or the Masquerade sequence in Phantom. Whereas, when it comes to the bleak dystopia of the Hunger Games, I just don't see any room for that kind of song. Kids singing "We're off to kill each other!" or a shiny parade of this year's contestants with confetti? The thing that impressed me most with the Hunger Games movies was how they almost constantly managed to give me a lump in my throat. I just don't see that work with music. Nor do I need to hear Katniss burst out into a big "Do I choose this boy or that boy?" ballad or similar, when Jennifer Lawrence often managed to say so much with no words at all.

Personally I just don't like the constant milking of popular franchises where "XY - the Musical" is usually the last bit of the food chain as if musicals are just that - the bargain bin of a franchise after they have been milked as books, movies, TV-shows and theme park attractions.

Having said that, whenever I said "I can't see this work as a musical", I do give things a chance and go to see them live. I quite liked American Psycho (if only for the 80s soundtrack) and I even had a good time at Spiderman in NY...

To the tune of "We're off to see The Wizard"...

I thought I would bump this thread to see if there was any more activity on this theatre/production?

www.thestage.co.uk/news/2016/the-hunger-games-live-stage-show-delayed/

Read this a few weeks back. Been delayed

Been delayed is correct. There's logistical issues that will be sorted and this will be a big hit

I don't think anyone's saying that Hunger Games is bigger than Potter, jholiday is just saying that the production values of Hunger Games are going to cause people clamour for tickets even more so than they did for Potter. Which would be quite a sight to behold, considering how far in advance Potter is basically sold out and how quickly the tickets go whenever a new batch goes on sale. But then if it, say, is going into a purpose-built venue that's larger than the Palace, then assuming the tickets sell as thoroughly and as quickly as Potter tickets have done, then you would be able to make the claim without technically telling porkies. We shall see.

Hmm, we shall see indeed. No matter how amazing the production values are, I imagine people will still need to be interested in the source material to want to book a ticket. Especially as this sounds like it could be expensive (purpose built arena, amazing production values etc.). I was in highschool when the Hunger Games fad took off, and the main reader/viewer base seemed to be older children / young adults. Where are they going to get the money for this sort of thing? I don't doubt that if/when it opens The Hunger Games will do well, and I'm excited to see what happens with it, but I just can't see it having the international, all genders, all ages, appeal that Harry Potter had/has. Plus the Hunger Games as a book/film series is kind of over, right? Meanwhile there seems to be a new Harry Potter spin off book/movie/pottermore revelation every other week, even all these years after the final movie was released, thus keeping interest alive.

I think Harry Potter is also more sophisticated than a lot of people give it credit for. It's deceptive in its simplicity. Agreed that His Dark Materials and Chaos Walking are just too too wonderful for words though, I'm hopeful that the forthcoming BBC series of the former will be so much better than the film, and I'm hopeful that the forthcoming film of the latter will be worth the wait.

I'm a big fan of both Harry Potter and The Hunger Games trilogy, but I couldn't begin to compare them.

Harry Potter is its own fantastic world (with one toe in the real/muggle world) and while I personally preferred the earlier "lighter" books to the later heavy-going stuff, it was all still in its own fantasy universe with Voldemort and Azkaban and Dementors and whatnot.

Hunger Games meanwhile is set in our world, albeit in a dystopian future. Many things in it brought a lump to my throat because it was so easy to draw comparisons to what is already out there, the media manipulation, the crazy game shows, and the need to even "sell" images of war in the press. So it will be a rather dark show, unless they lose much of the dystopian angle and then what's left.

Also, no offense to newbie poster jholiday but this sounds like typical marketing jargon " This will appeal to all ages and will blow Harry Potter pre sales tickets away due to the ground breaking technology that will generate massive amounts of buss."

Plenty of shows had to learn the hard way that "ground breaking technology" won't shift many tickets if the story (and by that I mean what's actually brought onto the stage, not the source material) and the music won't be good enough.

And Monkey is also right: Much of the buzz of the Potter Play is that it's something NEW and even if you can now buy the text, the only way to really SEE the new Potter story, is at the Palace Theatre, whereas Hunger Games is "more of the same in a new medium" (which also has to compete with the fantastic images the movies created and by that I don't mean the actual Hunger Games as such but things like the chariot entrances.