Dungeons and Dragons has moved on a lot since the early ’00s. There was a time when the game was seen exclusively as a weird hobby for nerds. A combination of fantasy themes, maths and the fact that it serves as a healthy way to exercise the imagination and gain confidence seemed to scare more conservative folk, and the game was openly mocked for decades. This has changed in the last twenty years, as D&D has become a game played by everyone, from actors and rock stars to you and me.

Here There Be Dragons: A Musical Quest feels like several editions and at least one generation behind the times. The characters in the show seem horrified that they’d have a life outside table-top roleplaying games, and everyone is horny and clueless. This could be charming, but instead it stumbles about, looking for relevance.

The plot, such as it is, follows a bunch of students who have spent their time at college playing D&D. This is presented as a ‘very bad thing’, as apparently playing D&D has made them unable to do anything else with their lives. Of course, they don’t play D&D in regular clothes; instead, they dress up in curtains and ‘boffer’ (fake) weapons in a manner that you only ever see in bad TV shows. A bad relationship break-up and some terrible advice means the D&D party finally gets out of the basement and into a quest – one that’s more than a little bit creepy, alas, as one of the party tries to ‘get their girlfriend back’.

We dive between moments in the campaign and real life, and this is done in a way that makes us believe the players can’t tell the game from reality, which feels somewhat old-fashioned. It also doesn’t help that it makes the story feel more like 1982’s Tom Hanks movie Monsters and Mazes than 2023’s Chris Pine movie Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

Like a badly managed D&D campaign, the show also suffers from too much plot and not enough characterisation. The songs aren’t terribly well-rehearsed, nor particularly memorable. The performers are clearly having fun, and that counts for a lot. This is a sweet idea, executed with enthusiasm but not sufficient skill.

This show has a lot of heart, and clearly a lot of money has been spent bringing it to the fringe, but as it stands, it just doesn’t feel particularly relevant to its subject matter, nor does it do anything new with the material. With D&D hitting its 50th anniversary this year, this feels like a bit of unironic retro-nostalgia at best.   

Here There Be Dragons: A Musical Quest needs to join the rest of us in 2024, level-up, re-spec its character sheet and re-roll its stats. Disappointing, but fun.

Learn more about Here There Be Dragons: A Musical Quest here.