Last year,Capcom announced plans for a stage musicalbased on the ferociously popularResident Evilseries. Now, after several months of pre-production, it seems that the project is starting to take shape ahead of its planned debut this fall.
It’s been announced that Reon Yuzuki will take the lead role in the show, but it’s not yet clear who the talented Osaka-born actress will be portraying. It could be an entirely new role created for the musical, ormimic theResident Evilmovie franchiseby loosely adapting characters from the video game series.
Adding to the uncertainty is the fact that Yuzuki made her name as anotokoyakuin the Takarazuka Revue — that being a female actress who plays male roles. With that in mind, it’s entirely possible that she’s scheduled to portray one of the male protagonists of the franchise, rather than the more obvious female characters.
With the proper costuming, Yuzuki could offer as convincing a performance as Leon Kennedy as she could portraying Jill Valentine. Given thatResident Evilhas produced a whole host of memorable characters over the years, there are certainly plenty of options if the plan is to revisit existing elements of the franchise.
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There’s also the question of what kind of tone the show is going to adopt. Given that it’s a musical adaptation of a survival-horror franchise, you might expect something that couples the B-movie vibe of early games in the series — but the talent involved suggests that this might be a touch more serious.
The lead creative on the show is Japanese playwright and director G2, according to a report fromKotaku. He’s currently in the process of staging a new version of My Fair Lady, so he’s just as familiar with more traditional theater as he is with something as out-there as a musical version ofResident Evil.
While there’sstill no word on when we can expectResident Evil 7, it’s interesting to see Capcom keep the series in the minds of its fans through unusual projects like this one. A musical is not the only weird avenue that the studio is exploring — just a few weeks ago, azombie-themed burritowas proudly showcased in an online video.
Anyone interested in seeing the musical adaptation ofResident Evilwill likely have to travel to Japan to do so. The show will be performed in Tokyo from September to October, before moving to Osaka for a run in November.
