32 Science fiction theatre

Science fiction theatre includes live dramatic works, but generally not cinema or television programmes. It has long been overshadowed by its literary and broadcast counterparts, but has a long history, and via the play R.U.R. introduced the word robot into global usage.

Barbarella is a musical based on the 1968 film Barbarella, which in turn was based on a French science fiction comic book created by Jean-Claude Forest. The story is about Barbarella, a young woman who has numerous adventures, often involving sex, while journeying around the galaxy.

Bat Out of Hell: The Musical is a rock musical with music, lyrics and book by Jim Steinman, based on the Bat Out of Hell album by Meat Loaf. Steinman wrote all of the songs, most of which are from the Bat Out of Hell trilogy of albums. The musical is a loose retelling of Peter Pan, set in post-apocalyptic Manhattan, and follows Strat, the forever young leader of 'The Lost' who has fallen in love with Raven, daughter of Falco, the tyrannical ruler of Obsidian.

The Blue Flame is a four-act play written by George V. Hobart and John Willard, who revised an earlier version by Leta Vance Nicholson. In 1920, producer Albert H. Woods staged the play on Broadway and on tour across the United States. Ruth Gordon, the main character, is a religious young woman who dies and is revived by her scientist fiancé as a soulless femme fatale. She seduces several men and involves them in crimes, including drug use and murder. In the final act, her death and resurrection are revealed to be a dream. The production starred Theda Bara, a popular silent film actress who was known for playing similar roles in movies.

Comic Potential by Alan Ayckbourn is a romantic sci-fi comedy play. It is set in a TV studio in the foreseeable future, when low-cost androids have largely replaced actors.

Communicating Doors is a play written in 1994 by Alan Ayckbourn. The setting is a hotel suite that moves through time from 1974 to 2014. The central character, Poopay, must save herself from the murderous Julian by preventing the murders of Reece's two wives.

The Curse Of The Daleks is a Dalek stage play, written by David Whitaker and Terry Nation, which appeared for one month at the Wyndham's Theatre in London beginning 21 December 1965. It is notable for being Terry Nation's first live action attempt to exercise his ownership of the Dalek concept independently of the BBC. As such, it does not include the character of the Doctor, the TARDIS or any other elements from the Doctor Who television series. Produced by John Gale and Ernest Hecht, and directed by Gillian Howell, it was performed mostly as a matinée indicating that children were the intended primary audience.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a four-act play written by Thomas Russell Sullivan in collaboration with the actor Richard Mansfield. It is an adaptation of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, an 1886 novella by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. The story focuses on the respected London doctor Henry Jekyll and his involvement with Edward Hyde, a loathsome criminal. After Hyde murders the father of Jekyll's fiancée, Jekyll's friends discover that he and Jekyll are the same person; Jekyll has developed a potion that allows him to transform himself into Hyde and back again. When he runs out of the potion, he is trapped as Hyde and commits suicide before he can be arrested.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Or a Mis-Spent Life is a four-act play written in 1897 by Luella Forepaugh and George F. Fish. It is an adaptation of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, an 1886 novella written by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. The story focuses on Henry Jekyll, a respected London doctor, and his involvement with Edward Hyde, a loathsome criminal. After Hyde murders a vicar, Jekyll's friends suspect he is helping the killer, but the truth is that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person. Jekyll has developed a potion that allows him to transform himself into Hyde and back again. When he runs out of the potion, he is trapped in his Hyde form and commits suicide.

Doctor Who and the Daleks in the Seven Keys to Doomsday was a stage play based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The play ran at the Adelphi Theatre in London, England for four weeks, beginning on 16 December 1974.

Doctor Who Live: The Monsters Are Coming! is an arena stage show based on the BBC TV programme Doctor Who.

The play Henceforward... is the first comedy in which Alan Ayckbourn includes elements of science fiction. It concerns Jerome, a composer, who develops a plan to persuade his estranged wife Corinna that his home life is sufficiently stable for her to allow their daughter to stay with him. The plan involves both an actress and a gynoid.

Improbable Fiction is a 2005 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It is about a writers' circle, on the night the chairman, Arnold, seems to wander into the imaginations of the other writers.

It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman is a 1966 musical composed by Charles Strouse, with lyrics by Lee Adams and book by David Newman and Robert Benton. It is based on the comic book character Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and published by DC Comics.

Journey Through the Impossible is an 1882 fantasy play written by Jules Verne, with the collaboration of Adolphe d'Ennery. A stage spectacular in the féerie tradition, the play follows the adventures of a young man who, with the help of a magic potion and a varied assortment of friends and advisers, makes impossible voyages to the center of the Earth, the bottom of the sea, and a distant planet. The play is deeply influenced by Verne's own Voyages Extraordinaires series and includes characters and themes from some of his most famous novels, including Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and From the Earth to the Moon.

A Klingon Christmas Carol is the first play to be performed entirely in Klingon, a constructed language first appearing in the Star Trek media franchise. The play is based on the Charles Dickens 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol. A Klingon Christmas Carol is the Charles Dickens classic tale of ghosts and redemption, adapted to reflect the Klingon values of courage and honor, and then translated into Klingon, performed with English supertitles.

Lazarus is a musical with music and lyrics composed by David Bowie, and a book written by Enda Walsh. First performed at the end of 2015, it was one of the last works Bowie completed before his death on 10 January 2016. The musical is inspired by the 1963 novel The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis. Bowie previously starred in the 1976 film adaptation of the same name, directed by Nicolas Roeg.

Věc Makropulos is a Czech play written by Karel Čapek. Its title—literally The Makropulos Thing—has been variously rendered in English as The Makropulos Affair, The Makropulos Case, or The Makropulos Secret.

Man on the Moon is a 1975 musical written by John Phillips of the Mamas & The Papas, produced by Andy Warhol and directed by Paul Morrissey. The story concerns an American astronaut who leads a mission of interplanetary dignitaries to prevent the destruction of the universe by a bomb that has been placed on the moon by an evil scientist and primed to explode.

Mercury Fur is a play written by Philip Ridley which premiered in 2005. It is Ridley's fifth adult stage play and premiered at the Plymouth Theatre Royal, before moving to the Menier Chocolate Factory in London.

A Message from Mars is a play by Richard Ganthony, first performed at London's Avenue Theatre in November 1899.

Metropolis is a musical based on the 1927 silent movie of the same name that was staged at the Piccadilly Theatre in London in 1989. The music was written by Joe Brooks, the lyrics by Dusty Hughes. The show was directed by Jérôme Savary. The cast included Judy Kuhn, Brian Blessed, Graham Bickley, Jonathan Adams, Paul Keown and Stifyn Parri. The musical marked the London debut of Judy Kuhn, who left the show shortly before the end of its run to be replaced by Mary Lincoln. The production was notable for its set design by Ralph Koltai.

My Sister Sadie is a 2003 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It was billed as a "family" play, and shown as the Stephen Joseph Theatre's Christmas production. It is about a seventeen-year-old boy who finds, emerging from a helicopter crash, a mysterious female who calls herself "Sadie", with an uncanny resemblance to his dead sister, with a military platoon in hot pursuit of a missing deadly weapon.

Night of the Auk is a 1956 Broadway drama in three acts written by Arch Oboler. It is a science fiction drama in blank verse about space travelers returning to Earth after the first Moon landing. The play was based on Oboler's radio play Rocket from Manhattan, which aired as part of Arch Oboler's Plays in September 1945. Night of the Auk was published in book form in 1958.

R.U.R. is a 1920 science-fiction play by the Czech writer Karel Čapek. "R.U.R." stands for Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti. It had its world premiere on 2 January 1921 in Hradec Králové and introduced the word "robot" to the English language and to science fiction as a whole. R.U.R. soon became influential after its publication. By 1923, it had been translated into thirty languages. R.U.R. was successful in its time in Europe and North America. Čapek later took a different approach to the same theme in his novel War with the Newts, in which non-humans become a servant class in human society.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a 1975 musical comedy horror film by 20th Century Fox, produced by Lou Adler and Michael White and directed by Jim Sharman. The screenplay was written by Sharman and actor Richard O'Brien, who is also a member of the cast. The film is based on the 1973 musical stage production The Rocky Horror Show, with music, book, and lyrics by O'Brien. The production is a parody tribute to the science fiction and horror B movies of the 1930s through to the early 1960s. Along with O'Brien, the film stars Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, and Barry Bostwick and is narrated by Charles Gray with cast members from the original Royal Court Theatre, Roxy Theatre, and Belasco Theatre productions including Nell Campbell and Patricia Quinn.

The Rocky Horror Show is a musical with music, lyrics and book by Richard O'Brien. A humorous tribute to the science fiction and horror B movies of the 1930s through to the early 1960s, the musical tells the story of a newly engaged couple getting caught in a storm and coming to the home of a mad transvestite scientist, Dr Frank-N-Furter, unveiling his new creation, a sort of Frankenstein-style monster in the form of an artificially made, fully grown, physically perfect muscle man named Rocky, complete "with blond hair and a tan".

Starship is a musical with music and lyrics by Darren Criss, and a book by Matt Lang, Nick Lang, Brian Holden, and Joe Walker.

Doctor Who – The Ultimate Adventure was a 1989 stage play written by Terrance Dicks, based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.

Via Galactica is a rock musical with a book by Christopher Gore and Judith Ross, lyrics by Gore, and music by Galt MacDermot. It marked the Broadway debut of actor Mark Baker.

We Will Rock You is a jukebox musical based on the songs of British rock band Queen with a book by Ben Elton. The musical tells the story of a group of Bohemians who struggle to restore the free exchange of thought and fashion, and live music in a distant future where everyone dresses, thinks and acts the same. Musical instruments and composers are forbidden, and rock music is all but unknown.

Whenever is a 2000 children's musical play with words by Alan Ayckbourn and music by Denis King, that was shown as the Stephen Joseph Theatre's Christmas production. It is loosely derived from The Wizard of Oz, and it is about a young Victorian girl named Emily to travels back and forth in time to avert a disaster.