The Grinning Man: A Musical Virtual Reality Performance

Virtual reality offers new ways to present musical theater to audiences, by allowing creative directors to put the audience ‘on stage’ with characters and enlist them as active contributors to the narrative. This demonstration showcases The Grinning Man Virtual Reality Experience, a performance of the song Labyrinth, from the hit London West End show of the same name, performed by original cast member, Louis Maskell and directed by Tony award winning, Tom Morris. In the experience, the main character, Grinpayne, sings to the audience while he grapples with a dilemma. The performance was motion-captured by The Imaginarium and then animated by multiple Academy Award winning, Aardman Animation Studios, with the addition of moments of interactivity at key points based on audience head and eye tracking data from within the headset. The experience aims to strike a balance between audience presence and agency, while maintaining the compelling performance by the actor. This subtle approach addresses and acknowledges the presence of the audience while staying true to the musical narrative.