
A Broadway musician’s double life as a murder mystery maker
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Today's guest is musical composer, orchestrator, lyricist, conductor, and musician Mike Pettry, who climbed the rungs of the theater world and now performs in the orchestras of award-winning Broadway shows. His performances have accompanied artists like Ben Platt and Idina Menzel.
But as his Broadway career blossomed, Pettry began to fantasize about something else entirely: making a musical… video game.
A murder mystery musical video game, to be precise. Murder at the Birch Tree Theater is a deduction game, in the style of Return of the Obra Dinn and The Case of the Golden Idol. Set across many years at a small community theater, it tells a story of intrigue, small-time fame, and, as the title promises, murder.
I talk with Pettry about juggling his two dreams on the world's biggest stage. Or under it. He plays in the orchestra after all.
- Act 1: A gamer in the Broadway pit
- Act 2: Fine-tuning a musical murder mystery game
- Patreon-bonus: Three original songs based on retro gaming classics, created by Mike Pettry and his longtime collaborator Eli Bolin
- The two previously wrote and orchestrated songs for John Mulaney’s Sack Lunch Bunch and Documentary Now!
- Act 3: The news of the week
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