'True Blood,' The Musical?

What do you do when your vampire show is getting stale? Turn it into a musical, of course. That's what might happen to True Blood, and I'm not sure why anyone thought that it was a good idea. True Blood composer Nathan Barr pitched the idea of a musical version of the show to creator Alan Ball. Now, Barr is working on some samples for what could become the True Blood musical.

True Blood fans, please tell me you also think this is the worst idea ever. Adapting a television show into a musical is a challenge (there are so many stories to tell) but True Blood itself poses unique difficulties. True Blood is set in a world parallel to our own, where the biggest difference is that, in the True Blood universe, supernatural creatures run amok. It's taken us seasons to grasp what exactly is going on in that world (not to mention just the town of Bon Temps in general) that it just can't be explained with a few song-and-dance numbers.

Barr explained that in order for the musical to work (it won't), the show will need to go back to its roots, which means focusing heavily on telepathic waitress Sookie. Unfortunately, I think that Barr forgot that many die-hard True Blood fans don't even like Sookie anymore — if I hear a song about Bill's undying love for "Sookeh," I might have to stake someone.

True Blood's musical experiment could create a plot based around Sookie's first encounter with vampire Bill, or even the creation of synthetic blood substitute, "True Blood," which sparked the events of the True Blood series. But while that might work for a pilot episode of a TV show, that's not really a musical plot — it sets up events for future "episodes" that the musical adaptation won't get. True Blood will have to choose a big story to tell for this venture, and, at the same time, be careful not to dive in too deeply to the show's mythology. That's a difficult task, and, even if they succeed, doesn't necessarily mean that the musical will work.

Barr is hoping to present a workshop version of the musical in about a year and see where things go from there. Hopefully Barr will surprise all of us with the best vampire musical since... uh, well, maybe ever. I'm just not going to hold my breath.

Images: HBO, io9 (2)