Today I learned that Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski produced a Tony Award-winning musical

In the pages of this outlet, Cliff Bleszinski is known for many things. He's known for his work at Epic, the creation of Gears of War, the development of LawBreakers, and some questionable assessments of where LawBreakers went wrong. He's the kind of guy whose tastes and general demeanour might lead us to categorise him as a 'bro,' though usually with a fair bit less venom than when we use that term for our modern tech overlords in 2026.

All in all, not the kind of guy I would have figured for the producer on a Tony Award-winning musical and a two-character anti-romcom about older working class people finding love (kinda) amid a one-night stand. Well, more fool me. It turns out ol' CliffyB is exactly that.

In a post on Bluesky, Standard Issue Computing took the time to remind everyone of that time in 2018 when Bleszinski, after the death of LawBreakers and closure of Boss Key Studios, took some time to invest in and co-produce Hadestown, a glitzy stage show that blends the stories of Orpheus and Eurydice with Hades and Persephone. It's meant to be quite good, I understand, but I can't vouch for that personally (I get overwhelmingly embarrassed when people start singing; my problem, not theirs).

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Bleszinski was rather chuffed about the gig, back in the day. In tweets preserved by Variety, Bleszinski announced his involvement with the show thusly: "Cross your fingers for me. This could be a dream gig I’ve had since [I was] a kid." He's returned to the show multiple times on social media since then.

"Was such an honor to be involved with this amazing show and it was a much needed win after my game studio cratered," Bleszinski posted on Instagram in 2021, alongside a shot of himself outside New York's Walter Kerr Theatre, where the show was then being staged (in fact, it still is). "So honored to be a tiny part of this magical production," he wrote in celebration of Hadestown's 2000th performance last August.

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Hadestown rather crushed the 2019 Tony Awards, nabbing eight trophies including Best Musical. I suppose Bleszinski's involvement caught someone's eye, because he was collared to co-produce a production of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, starring Michael Shannon and Audra McDonald.

That one was nominated for two Tonys—best revival of a play and best performance by a leading actress in a play, for McDonald. Bleszinski has been less chatty about that one, but did tell Gamespot that getting his name in the playbill was "thrilling."

All of which I only tell you because I've been rather pleased to learn about this Cliff Bleszinski B-plot I was hitherto unaware of. It simply doesn't fit with my mental image of the man—a criticism of my limited imagination more than of Bleszinski—and I must confess I'm delighted to learn about this secret character arc he has apparently been on. A game developer is like an onion: you just keep pulling back one fascinating layer after another.

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.