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Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Musical
3.29.05 - By Pook 

            As many of you may or may not know, there have been several Broadway musicals over the past few years that are adaptations of different books and movies.  In the next few years, shows like Lord of the Rings and Shrek are set to sit the stage.  No, I’m not joking.  So I figured that I’d put in my two cents in case anyone wanted to make a musical version of Yu-Gi-Oh!

            Now I’m not going to waste time with casting – I’ve done enough of that with my articles on the movie (by the way, I just want to thank Dark Paladin for all of the nice things he said about my articles in his movie-adaptation article).  I’ll just jump right to the good stuff. 

            The show would have completely original music – no taking the tunes from other shows and inserting Yu-Gi-Oh-themed lyrics – if you want to see a show like that, try to find a website for Star Wars the Musical – I ran across this website probably around 8 years ago, and it was incredibly funny. 

The story would start 5000 years ago, and there would be a fantastic musical number called “Tale of the Pharaoh” where the back story is explained.  Singing, dancing, some neat special effects, and boom!; the Pharaoh is trapped in the puzzle.  Fast forward to our time, and we are introduced to Yugi.  At first, he starts to sing about how lonely he is, and how he wants a friend more than anything else in the world.  This song is called “True Friend”.  Yugi goes off to school, where Tristan and Joey tease him.  After a day of harassment, Yugi sets off home.  When he gets home, his grandpa is waiting for him, and reassures him that one day he will find a friend, and sings “You Make Me So Proud”.  To get his spirits up, he gives Yugi a box containing an ancient puzzle.  He tells him that he’s had it for nearly 60 years and has never been able to finish it.  Yugi proves to his grandpa that he’ll make him proud and finish the puzzle.  Sure enough, that night Yugi completes the puzzle, but then suddenly it starts to glow. 

The next day at school, Yugi is in a daze.  He has the Millennium Puzzle around his neck, but he can’t remember what happened to him the night before.  His friend Tea assures him that this day at school will be better than that last.  Later in that day, Tristan and Joey are getting hassled by a teacher, and even though they don’t like him very much, Yugi stands up for them.  The teacher then sees another victim for his wicked ways, but just then, Yugi’s puzzle begins to glow.  Now, here’s the tricky part.  Using a little bit of stage magic, the actor who plays Yugi is “magically” replaced by the actor who is the Pharaoh.  It’s a simple trick using trap doors, lighting, and smoke machines.  The actors look similar, but whereas Yugi’s singing voice is a tenor (higher), the Pharaoh is more of a baritone (more of a deeper, middle sort of voice).  The Pharaoh proclaims to the teacher “Enough of your games, it’s time for one of my own!” which leads into his song “Shadow Game”.  During the number, the teacher gets a taste of his own medicine when he becomes the victim of the Shadow Game.  Tristan and Joey are thankful and lighten up towards Yugi.  After they leave, Tea, who witnessed the whole thing, can’t believe what just happened.  She saw it was Yugi, but she knew that it really wasn’t him.  She sings “Who Are You?”, a song about Yugi’s other self. 

The next scene introduces Kaiba and Mokuba.  The song, “Kaiba Corp.” is sung by the boys, as well as the workers in the company.  They sing about the advancements they’ve made in gaming technology, and how theirs is the best company in the world.  Kaiba also tells about the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, his favorite monster, and how there are only 4 of them in the whole world.  It also offers insight as to how cruel Kaiba can be, and how Mokuba still loves his older brother no matter what.  In fact, after seeing his brother’s harshness, he sings a song “No Matter What” about his dedication to his older brother. 

Yugi, Tea, Joey, and Tristan head to Grandpa’s shop to tell him about what happened at school that day.  The four go around, singing how each of them saw the events.  The song, “You Should Have Seen Him” starts with Tristan and Joey telling Mr. Moto about how Yugi stood up for them.  Their take on the situation was that by using brute force, Yugi beat up the teacher.  Tea interjects on how she saw it, and how it was Yugi’s strength of character that defeated the bullying teacher.  Yugi is thoroughly embarrassed by how they flattered him, and heads up to his room.  While there, he looks in the mirror and sings the “You Should Have Seen Him” reprise, only this time replacing the “Him” with “Me”.  He can’t believe what happened.  Just then, the Pharaoh appears in the mirror (again, theatrical tricks to replace the mirror with the actor standing in an empty frame).  The Pharaoh tells Yugi that he’s been trapped in the Puzzle for 5000 years, and that it was because he finished the puzzle was he allowed to re-enter this world.  He thanks him for freeing him, and tells him what it was like being trapped in the puzzle, in his song “Millennium and Eternity”.  After his song, the two sing a duet reprise of “True Friend”, ending act 1. 

Act two starts up with Grandpa telling Yugi and his friends about a game he used to play called Duel Monsters, and he shows the kids how to play in his song “Heart of the Cards.”  It is a very happy song, and he sings about his prized Blue-Eyes White Dragon card.  After the song ends, Kaiba enters Grandpa’s shop.  He’s come to buy the Blue-Eyes, but naturally, Grandpa won’t sell.  So Kaiba threatens him with his song “Dragons”.  He explains his obsession with the card, and when Grandpa still won’t sell it, Kaiba threatens to buy his shop, only to close it.  Yugi steps in, saying that this can’t happen, so then Kaiba says that Grandpa will have to duel for the card.  Finally giving in to pressure, Grandpa agrees to the duel.  The two exit to go duel, and Tristan and Tea follow.  Before Joey leaves, he tells Yugi how he wants to be more like him, stick up for other people, in his song “Somebody’s Hero”.  They then go to watch the duel. 

Now at Kaiba Corp. we are treated to an extravagant number, where the dueling arena is brought in.  The song is called “Duel Monsters”.  Kaiba quickly defeats Grandpa, who suddenly gets very dizzy and faints.  Medics rush in to care for him, and Yugi wants to go with him, but Grandpa tells him to stay and rematch Kaiba for the card.  He agrees, but is afraid to lose, having only been just introduced to the game.  They have a brief duet reprise of “Heart of the Cards”.  Yugi gets into the dueling arena, and then becomes the Pharaoh.  He and Kaiba sing the song “Dark Magic” as they duel.  The song ends and Kaiba is almost certain to win, when Yugi appears next to the Pharaoh.  Together, they sing “The King of Games”, a back-and-forth sort of song, where one is hopeless and the other his hopeful.  The song finishes with them both convinced that they can win, and together, they do.  Kaiba is defeated.  Everything is happy again.  Grandpa is well, and the entire company sings the reprise of “The King of Games”.  The end. 

So, you think people would dish out $100 a ticket to check this out on Broadway?  Well, we’ll see.  Now just a reminder, like my movie articles, this is all speculation that I have made up.  This is not real, nor are there plans to make this real (as far as I know).  Until next time, haaaaaaaaaaaaappy duuuuuuuuuuuuueling! (That was me singing it.)