Playbill: Attention, Panemanians: We have your first look at London's world premiere stage adaptation of The Hunger Games. The production, which began performances October 20 at Troubadour Canary Wharf Theatre in London, is set to open November 12. The theatre is purpose-built for the production, which is staged-in-the round. The extended run is currently scheduled through October 18, 2026.
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13 comments:
I’m a longtime Hunger Games fan, and luckily enough, I’m also going to see this show in December. While I was excited at first, I honestly don’t think that this is a media that lends itself well to adaptation (although the aspect of living in Katniss’s head could be more interesting in a play than a movie.) I’ve seen a lot of mixed reviews (although most of them are about the venue itself), and I do have to wonder if this is a cash grab springboarding off of the Hunger Games’ surge in popularity and relevance over the past couple of years. I do have to wonder if this show is about the spectacle alone. Although, I think that there are some things that could be cooler as a show. I’m super excited for the costume design, and I think that different acting choices are really refreshing. I wonder how much input Suzanne Collins had on the production.
It is very interesting to see the variety of reviews that this show has amassed over the past few months as people have begun to go and see previews and different versions of the Hunger Games Musical. There have been many mixed reviews, from the work itself to the accessibility of the theater. This article from Playbill focuses on the cast specifically, along with releasing several photos from the production. From first looks at the photographs, it seems that there is a heavy reliance on the lighting to tell the story, or insinuate certain story elements. To be fair though, there is a certain complexity to the story, and a distinct set change for each location would be extremely difficult. Overall though I feel that the industrial and rather minimal elements of the set really contribute the the bleak atmosphere and reality to the dystopian story that the creative team is replicating from the original material.
These movie adaptations to me are so disappointing to hear about. I love that they're trying to make them into more forms. But at the end of the day all of these productions of movies that already exist being turned into a musical or a play, it really just seems like they're trying to get away without paying writers to write something completely original. They're just trying to make as much money as possible off of their IP, and it just makes me think about what other disappointing things might be happening behind the scenes. Again I think it's great for the fans but, it's definitely a cash grab. An attempt to get away with as much new work as possible and just recycle the same content over and over and people will just keep on buying it. The same problem exists in the video game industry as well. Companies just keep taking the same IP and will "remaster it" and just re-release the same game over and over, I think Bethesda has released their Elder Scrolls Skyrim, at least 6 times at this point. It's just so scummy.
This show seems deeply flawed in so so many ways that I really hoped it wouldn’t be. I think the Hunger Games could make a really interesting and effective stage show, but this does not seem to be it yet. It seems like it needed a lot more development time, and it is weird to me to build a new theater specifically for a certain show that has no guarantee how long it will run for. I do appreciate the emphasis they’ve put on the fight choreography as I do think the graphic violence of the book/movie is a huge part of the message and storytelling that wouldn’t hit home without it. I also think having audience members sit in “districts” is interesting instead of making them all capital citizens and having that unique dynamic. It also seems like the book needs a lot of work as well as the theater still needs work in order to be open to the public. I do hate how online people are framing their previews as opening night as many shows fundamentally change before opening, but I do think this show probably needed more work before it even go to the theater.
I've always had struggles reading big books so as a kid I basically never read unless it was assigned for class, until the Hunger Games series. This is one of the only series I can remember reading as a kid which makes me even more excited for the stage adaptation. I wish that I had the chance to see it but I don’t think I will be able to unless it comes to Broadway someday. The pictures of this production are really interesting, the lighting is absolutely insane. Of course, I haven’t seen the production itself but… I can just tell how much story telling they do with just technical elements. I love that they chose to do an in the round theater set up because it feels so much like the arena the games take place in. That set up will really make the audience feel like they are the viewers in the capitol which is kinda ironic in a way because if you really think about it, audience members are the donors to the theater makers… maybe that's a stretch
So, I have never read the Hunger Games. I’ve always wanted to, but I’ve never gotten around to it since my life ever since I was an appropriate age to read it has been a busy mess. However, this might finally give me enough of a push to actually make some time for it. This show really interests me, and I want to see thow they would bring to life a world such as the one of Hunger Games. I may not know the full story, but I still know things about the world and seeing it brought to life on a stage seems very interesting and cool. I will probably read the books or watch the movies prior to see this performance, as I think its best to look a base materials before seeing any adaptation (especially since in most cases the books of things that are adapted are better than the adaptation itself). However, that isn’t to say that I think this adaptation will be bad! In fact, I’m sure it’ll be pretty damn great and I will for sure being trying to catch it.
The idea of adapting The Hunger Games for the stage is so fascinating to me. Across both the novel and the film adaptation, the narrative contains vastly different settings that would make for a unique design challenge. It’s also interesting that the production is being staged in a purpose built facility, which I suppose has been designed to meet the precise design requirements of the story. The space seems like it will be quite dynamic, with the action seeming like it will happen around the audience as well as on the central stage. The central stage to me also seems to be somewhat reminiscent of the processional square from the film, where the tributes ride in on chariots, and that’s likely intentional but noteworthy nevertheless. One thing regarding the casting that I don’t particularly like is the fact that President Snow is only appearing in video recording, rather than on stage himself. While that may help distance the audience from him, as Katniss was from the Capital, that still could have been done whilst keeping the live actor.
I remember reading about people going to the previews for this show and I hope that by now they have fixed all of the issues of the venue that were mentioned in that article. Once again I am not so sure how I feel about this show since I am not the biggest fan of play adaptations especially when I just read an article about new works that actually seem like they will be contributing a lot to the art world. While I really enjoyed the Hunger Games as a kid, I do wonder how it will hold up as a play especially during the current political climate. There is a way for the Hunger Games to become an allegory for what is going on in our current administration and the way that the rich contribute to society, but there is a part of me that does not believe that those creating this adaptation kept that in mind.
I had seen a little bit about this show on tiktok and instagram reels and it looks really cool. I think that this plot is really difficult to perform on a stage and it seems like they have done it to the best of their ability but to be quite honest it isn’t the best show from what i’ve heard online. The Hunger Games as a live performance is a good concept but the execution is difficult. This leads me back to the fact that this is just another adaption of something old being turned into something new just like Disney has continuously done. I do like that the fight choreography seems to be well done since the fighting is a beg big part of the hunger games. Another thing they seem to have done well, from what I can tell, are the technical elements. They seem to do it well in a way that keeps the audience invested and doesn’t take them out of the world of the Hunger Games.
I actually already wrote a response on a different article about The Hunger Games on stage and it's really interesting how different these two are. In the first article the reviewer really didn't enjoy the show and especially didn't enjoy how the theater and the people running it set it up. Obviously this is from Playbill so it's not really an opinion piece but after Googling some more stuff on it it is interesting that pretty much every single article has very positive things to say about it besides the earlier one I commented on. I really can't picture it no matter how much they describe it because the Hunger Games is just such a difficult piece to translate to a stage, especially because there are so many aspects of it that I just cannot picture how they would produce in a way where every single audience member can experience it.
I found this article really fascinating. I love the hunger games movies so seeing a hunger games play would be really interesting. I have never read the book, but I've got always interested in the possibility of reading them so I might do that at some point. Reading this article has reinvigorated me of my love of the movies so I want to go back and rewatch them. I think I might do that later this weekend. I am really interested to see how they handle the onstage violence during this musical and I think the fight call would be absolutely fascinating to watch and observe. This is a fascinating article that I highly enjoyed reading. I can't wait to see what this musical ends up looking like and excited to see where it goes. I hope it comes over to Broadway so I might have the possibility of seeing it. It was. I'm intrigued and excited to see what happens.
I am a very big fan of the Hunger Games series and I am extremely intrigued by a live stage adaptation of the story. Though I do wonder how the theater creators will create the dystopian and hyper technological world of Hunger Games. The plot of the movies is also very focused on combat and the killing of other people, and I hope that they combat will look good on stage and not take away from peoples enjoyment of the performance. The space that the actually games takes place in is also very vast, and I am curious to see how they will create this on stage. This is a movie that I did not expect to be made into a live performance, and I look forward to hearing more about it. I feel like this production has the possibility to change how people view theater, and what theater can do. It also seems like the production has a good team behind it which I hope will make for an amazing production.
I often wonder about books to film to stage adaptations. Especially for things like Hunger Games and Spider Man, these two stories that are centered around spectacle. The reality of building winches fly systems that are safe for these actors to perform the actions that they are doing is complex and risky. I also wonder if we on stage can compete with action stories the same way. One of the things I remember about the hunger games is the pure spectacle of change in environment and if done right onstage we can take the story to whole new levels but I would be interested in seeing the production and how it solves these technical problems. I think the thrust configuration is an interesting choice and I would be intrigued to see how they changed environments. I do think it adds to the looking in aspect that the story has written in. We are watching these kids from different districts possibly live out the last moments of their lives. This not being presented in a picture-like frame must make the connection that much deeper.
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