Dream Theater's The Astonishing is perfect fit for stage musical

John Petrucci
John Petrucci (Image credit: Getty)

Dream Theater’s John Petrucci says he’d “love” to make their 2016 concept album The Astonishing into a musical.

Their 13th title, released in January, explores a dystopian future where the power of music is used to wage war against an evil empire – and the guitarist says it would be “awesome” to introduce the story to a completely new audience.

He tells Metal Assault: “There have been many levels of this whole project from the very beginning. I imagined it first as a Dream Theater show, and then of course as a Dream Theater album, but beyond that, there’s a video game that is in development, there’s a novel that is in development.”

Petrucci continues: “I think it would fit perfectly adapted as a musical, in the same way that The Who did that successfully with Tommy, and Green Day more recently with American Idiot on Broadway. That would be amazing.

“It’s a whole different world from the rock and metal scene, so it’s a different group of people to have to make those relationships with, but that’s something that we’re pursuing and I would love to see that. I think it would be totally awesome.”

The guitarist previously hinted that the album could be made into a film in future.

He adds: “Because the experience of The Astonishing is an album – it’s not a movie, at least not yet – the music is important to guide the listener and conjure up these images as to what’s happening in the story. The music really acted as a score to us. Hopefully when you’re listening to it, you get this visual.”

Dream Theater will tour Europe in 2017.

Dream Theater: Images And Words European tour 2017

Jan 30: Rome Auditorium Parco della Musica, Italy
Feb 01: Padova Gran Teatro Geox, Italy
Feb 03: Zurich Samsung Hall, Switzerland
Feb 04: Milan Mediolanum Forum, Italy
Feb 06: Prague Forum Karlin, Czech Republic
Feb 08: Tilburg 013, Netherlands
Feb 10: Ludwigsburg MHP Arena, Germany
Feb 11: Dusseldorf Mitsubishi Electric Halle, Germany
Feb 12: Paris Zenith, France
Feb 14: Hamburg Mehr, Germany
Feb 16: Malmo Arena, Sweden
Feb 17: Partille Arena, Sweden
Feb 18: Stockholm Fryshuset Arena, Sweden

How Dream Theater are redefining the concept album

Former TeamRock news desk member Christina joined our team in late 2015, and although her time working on online rock news was fairly brief, she made a huge impact by contributing close to 1500 stories. Christina also interviewed artists including Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and worked at the Download festival. In late 2016, Christina left rock journalism to pursue a career in current affairs. In 2021, she was named Local Weekly Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.