Michael Counts is unarguably the Stephen Sondheim of immersive theatre, with each of his unique experiences topping the previous one in terms of scope and imagination. After reinventing bus tours with his now iconic The Ride, Counts has also captured people’s dreams with his opulent operas, and their nightmares with his immersive The Walking Dead experience. Now he’s taken Dante Aligheri’s The Divine Comedy as the inspiration behind an escape room event that combines Balade Runner and Dan Brown called Paradiso: Chapter 1. During the experience up to ten people become part of a Hitchcockian adventure involving brainwashing corporations, missing soldiers and clues that would drive Robert Langdon crazy. We spoke to Counts about his unique creative process, his career and what musical he would like to tackle.

Why The Divine Comedy?

The Divine Comedy is a seminal piece of literature, some would say the most important piece of Italian literature. I got into it 15 years ago and thought it was an ideal piece for immersive theatre, because if you think about it it’s about Virgil leading Dante on a journey through a variety of very different sets and experiences that reflected the human experience and history. Early in my career as an immersive theatre creator I thought it was a perfect structural piece, in doing an immersive show about The Divine Comedy we’re essentially casting the audience as Dante and taking them on the same journey Virgil took him in.

I sadly couldn’t solve all the puzzles to make it to the end of the experience and left wanting to return, which made me think you’ve built cliffhangers into your work! Do you plan to pursue any of the experiences you’ve created in another medium, like turning them into TV shows or books?

That’s always been a conversation, I’m eager to see where my work leads next because it’s been more of an intuitive path rather than an intentional one. I’ve done opera, traditional theatre, created attractions, so I’m eager to see where it goes. My love of immersive theater and the fact that it’s attracting more audiences as people change and want to become immersed in things they love, they want to have experiences where they can have some degree of agency, it’s an experience that’s all yours, you’re not experiencing what others do.

But Paradiso is by default bringing up this notion that all art should be immersive, because no one experiences anything the same thing the same way. Do you feel that rather than “competing” with traditional theatre you’re reminding people why engaging with art is so important?

I think so, look I never see this as competing with anything, I just make the art I’m drawn to and I wanna see in the world. People either dig it or they don’t, but like you said, you get out of it what you invest. People who show up and want to be spoon fed won’t get much out of it, people who want to be passively entertained won’t enjoy it. There is so much here to explore too, we have websites and so many clues no one has discovered yet, those things are really exciting. People who come in and are eager to play and explore have a richer experience.

Your works touch on very extreme emotions, whether it’s going into The Divine Comedy or dating, you don’t beat around the bush when it comes to making people react.

To me it’s all an exploration of life, PLAY/DATE was about that, an experience of life and dating in New York, Paradiso is darker and a little bit more malevolent in the spirit of Blade Runner which is one of my favorite films. The Walking Dead experience that we did really rendered that world which is a dark, post-apocalyptic work. The great thing about being alive is how many different things we can experience if we go out and pursue them.

Immersive theatre also offers new playwrights an opportunity to showcase their work.

Yes, for sure.

One last thing, if you could take a couple Broadway musicals and turn them into immersive experiences which would they be?

Cabaret and a part of me is drawn to 42nd Street, but the first musical I ever saw was Oklahoma! so who knows?

I like the idea of Cabaret because you could use karaoke to convey the idea of what an average singer Sally Bowles is supposed to be.

Totally, that would be awesome!

For more on Paradiso: Chapter 1 click here.