Stage play adaptations of popular boys love visual novels offer a new and unique way to enjoy the stories already known to audiences.
Since BL visual novels have branching storylines, typically with each love interest having their own route in the game with unique scenes, performance runs of the stage play adaptations will not simply have the actors memorize and enact a single version of the play at each performance, but will schedule different routes for different days and times, allowing audiences to book the specific variation of the story – and the specific romance – that they want to see.
For example, the classic BL game Lucky Dog 1 is currently, enjoying its fifth stage play run in Japan, with a schedule chart on the website showing ticket buyers what session corresponds to what character’s route.
Most of NITRO CHIRAL’s games have had stage adaptations, with DRAMAtical Murder also having a second revival run that was expanded to include sessions which ended on the Virus and Trip route as well as Good End sessions for each main love interest.
The stage play for Lamento – Beyond the VOID – was a musical with extensive singing, an appropriate approach to the original visual novel’s storyline and presentation. It had three routes available, with Good Ends for the three main love interests.
sweet pool didn’t have the same availability of Good Ends for each character to draw from in organizing its schedule, and so instead presented one route for each character: one following Zenya’s route, one following Makoto’s, and for Tetsuo the Miracles May ending from the game.
Togainu no Chi was staged earlier this year, with sessions for each major love interest’s route. Interesting, though the ‘white shirt Akira’ ending to the Shiki route was not staged, bromides of Akira’s actor dressed in this outfit could be purchased from the merchandise table at performances.
The different stage plays vary in how they choose to depict the sexual content from their respective games – the DRAMAtical Murder stage play, for instance, kept things quite metaphorical and used interpretive dance sequences to suggest the intimate scenes, whereas the Togainu no Chi play enacted the erotic content – yes, including the screwdrivers – with the actors clothed.
Since popular actors and idols are usually selected to play the roles in these plays, their fans often come to see the performances without prior knowledge of the games, so the productions must balance providing fan service to those who have loved the games for a long time with providing accessibility to those new to the stories.
If you’re ever lucky enough to be in Japan when one of these plays is running, I highly recommend going – I was lucky enough to see the Ren route of DRAMAtical Murder and the Rin route of Togainu no Chi in person, and both were absolutely peak experiences. My video of the curtain call for the Rin route can be found here.