Seeing your favorite music from videogame soundtracks in concert isn’t the hardest thing to do these days. With the constant international touring of shows like Distant Worlds: Music From Final Fantasy and Video Games Live, odds are good you’ll be able to see a symphony orchestra pluck out the theme to Super Mario Bros. somewhere close to your hometown at some point.

Blair Baker, a 26-year-old sound engineer from San Jose, California, has seen a few of these shows and found them wanting.

“They take an orchestra and they say, ‘Alright guys, we’re going to play this music,’” she says. “They bring in a conductor, the orchestra plays and they flash some pretty Final Fantasy pictures on the screen, and that’s it. It’s not very engaging. It doesn’t tell a story, it doesn’t present anything that I as a fan haven’t already seen.”

Baker thought there was a better way to showcase the music of videogames and Japanese animation live onstage, and decided to make it happen. In 2006, she and a crew of volunteers staged a show called Tribute in San Luis Obispo, California.

This Saturday, the dedicated superfans present their second show, called Hideo, at the Zellerbach Auditorium in Berkeley. It’s a much more elaborate production, one that has cost Baker and her fiance $60,000 of their personal savings.

“What I wanted to present is something that’s cohesive, high-quality, that tells a story,” says Baker.

Hideo isn’t just a collection of music. It has a narrative woven through it, a hero’s journey built around fan-favorite pieces of music from Japanese animation and videogames: “The Red Wings” from Final Fantasy IV, “You Were There” from Ico and “Canta Per Me” from Noir, to name three.

In all, 40 musicians will play more than 30 instruments in various combinations as the night goes on, injecting a dose of variety into a scene dominated by the full-orchestra experience.

Many volunteers have donated their time and energy to make the show happen, but Hideo is truly a labor of love for Baker, who poured her life savings into the production.

“We have pretty much given up all hope of making money,” she says. If the show sells out, Baker and her fiance might break even on their $60,000 investment.

Baker spent two years working on The Sims 3 at Electronic Arts but was laid off a year ago. Since then, she has only done part-time theater gigs and office work — “something, anything really to help us afford this project,” she says.

“Whether we make the money back is not a priority right now,” Baker says. “The most important thing is for people to see the show. I want the fans to see the show.”

Hideo: A Theatrical Concert of Music from Japanese Animation & Video Games will take place at the Zellerbach Concert Hall, University of California at Berkeley, at 8 p.m. Friday. Tickets are on sale now from $40 to $64.

See Also:

• An Evening With Uematsu, Final Fantasy’s Music Man
• Meet the Mario Maestros Who Have Videogame Music Rocking Concert Halls

Authors: Chris Kohler

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