The Twenty-Sided Tavern: New D&D Live Theatrical Show Announced
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
New official Dungeons & Dragons stage show to appear off Broadway in New York City
As an experience built largely on improvisation and role playing, Dungeons & Dragons actually has more in common with live theatre than a typical board game. So in many ways it’s surprising that D&D hasn’t actually been adapted to the stage before.
That’s about to change thanks to The Twenty-Sided Tavern, the first official Dungeons & Dragons live theatrical experience, which is coming to New York this spring as an Off Broadway production.
So just what can fans expect to see when the lights come up on this new stage show? Below we break out all the details.
What is The Twenty-Sided Tavern?
The Twenty-Sided Tavern is a live, officially licensed Dungeons & Dragons stage show that’s a joint production between Curious Hedgehog, The Path Entertainment Group and Wizards of the Coast. The show, which is dubbed as “experiential entertainment,” includes five actors playing more than 30 unique characters and takes place in the popular Forgotten Realms setting. Like a D&D game session, each show is completely unique, with the audience voting on key story decision through the use of an app known as Gamiotics. Viewers can decide on which characters appears and help them overcome puzzles, riddles and combat experiences. At certain points audience members will also join the cast on stage and participate in trivia, charades and something known as “Fantasy Beer Pong.”
The show is clearly inspired by the growing popularity of D&D actual play series like Critical Role, but has a much more defined structure to it as an Off Broadway theatrical production with a professional cast, crew and stage show. It’s also perfect timing given the popularity of the D&D in the wake of the Honor Among Thieves film and the fact that the D&D 50th Anniversary is taking place in 2024.
Casting for the show is currently underway and it’s being produced by David Carpenter, Sarah Davis Reynolds and David Andrew Laws, along with David Hutchinson and Nathan Brine of The Path Entertainment Group. Notably, an early stage version of the The Twenty-Sided Tavern had played several engagements in Chicago, Pittsburgh and Edinburgh, but in those performances did not have the official Dungeons & Dragons branding or the scope of the upcoming Off Broadway production.
When is the Twenty-Sided Tavern premiering?
The Twenty-Sided Tavern D&D stage show will premiere on April 19th, 2024, with an official May 5th opening. Pre-sale begins on February 29th, with tickets available to the public on March 4th. All the performances will occur off Broadway at the well-known Stage 42 theatre, which is located in New York’s popular “Theatre Row” located on West 42nd Street.
Final Thoughts
It’s incredible to think that an official D&D live theatrical production is now a reality and given what we’ve seen the countless actual play series on YouTube, the material seems ripe for improvisation, audience engagement and a professional stage show. It remains to be seen, however, just what the final production will be like.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on this story in the days ahead and will update this page with more information as it’s made available. In the meantime, below is a brief video that offers a little bit more information on what to expect.
More D&D News Coverage
For more from the world of Wizards of the Coast, visit our D&D News page.
Cameron Nichols is a Senior Editor who lives in Boston, Massachusetts, and has been playing D&D since the early 90s, when he was introduced by his older brother and cut his teeth on AD&D 2nd Edition. Since then he’s played virtually every RPG he could get his nerdy little mitts on (including a weird Goth phase in the early 2000s when he rocked Vampire: The Masquerade pretty hard). His favorite D&D campaign setting is the Forgotten Realms and his favorite character to play was a Half-Orc Barbarian named Grug (who was unfortunately devoured by a gelatinous cube).
