The Fullmetal Fan Club!

Some Visual Effects Ideas for an FMA Musical

There are MANY visual effects in Fullmetal Alchemist that would be extremely difficult to pull off onstage, and not all of them can be solved through just a simple lighting trick- but I have some ideas!

Envy's Death (Gracie has already seen this):
When Roy starts the fire, we'd have a bunch of strips of shimmering fabric shoot up in front of Envy. (They'd come from in the stage and there would be like intense wind to blow them up or something.) They would like pulse every time Roy snaps, which I would love to have on beat with the music! While Envy is behind the fire, all you can see is his silhouette, so this would give him time to change into a skeletal-looking costume since his body has been burned away. (Side note- I REALLY want a turntable for Roy and Riza during Even Into Hell Reprise) I'd probably have some actual fire burst out at the front of the stage a la Phantom of the Opera when he does that one big angry snap after Riza says she'll kill herself if she has to kill him. The flames would gradually dip lower and lower as she talks him down, and Envy would be revealed.
I think he would like, crawl to the front of the stage? And he'd have a small puppet of Lizard!Envy, which he'd manipulate similar to the puppets in Lion King, and Envy's final song and suicide would be done with that. I think that would be a super cool and artistic way to do it!

Al's Solo:
I had mentioned before that I wanted to have Al perform his solo, "Shell of Me", outside of his armor. I had already been thinking of having the black "truth hands" or whatever be dancers in black bodysuits or something. For how to get him back into the armor, I was thinking it would be interesting/symbolic to have them drag/carry Al back into it.

For Greed's death, of course I'm having both him and Ling be played by the same actor, so I was thinking Greed's lines during that scene would be prerecorded since he's outside Ling's body.