Hasbro rolls the dice to leap from board game to Broadway stage with Monopoly The Musical.
Anyone who has ever seen Optimus Prime dominate a movie screen or binge-watched My Little Pony knows that Hasbro has the magic to bring toys and games to life onscreen. This time, the game in question is Monopoly. And it’s going to be a musical.
Hasbro (whose headquarters are right across from the convention center that hosts Rhode Island Comic Con) is bringing its iconic board game to the stage by partnering with the Araca Group, the production and merch company you probably have to thank for that Wickedsnowglobe or MatildaT-shirt. It was a merchandise deal for fantasy card game Magic: The Gathering that first had execs on both sides thinking of conjuring a stage show.
So what exactly can we expect to see in a Monopoly, the Musical? “It’s not going to be a musical about people sitting around playing Monopoly,” according to Araca’s Matthew Rego, which is something of a relief. “What turns us on is creating something that explores the world of Monopoly, kind of like the Lego movies have done with Legos.” While there is no official word on a plot yet, it seems that a tap-dancing Monopoly Man making millions in property trades and narrowly escaping bankruptcy and jail isn’t too farfetched.
Hasbro putting on a smash stage show will bring in much more than pastel paper money to the Community Chest. The company is making a potentially game-winning move as movie studios and entertainment giants zero in on just how lucrative screen-to-stage hits Aladdinand The Lion Kingare. Araca and Hasbro plan to explore the toy giant’s collective imagination to inspire future shows that could soon be singing and dancing their way onto amusement parks, cruises and national tours, though their main goal at the moment is to make Monopolythe big deal of Broadway.
“To bring our properties to life onstage is just the next level of immersion,” said Simon Waters, Hasbro’s general manager and SVP of entertainment and consumer products. The musical, whose first curtain call is still three to four years away, will add another dimension to an already immersive universe. It’s a Chance card worth playing.
Source: Variety
