Opening soon: LOTR the Musical!

[neglet]

Saw a blurb about it in EW's 2006 preview issue ... and was curious how many here are curious about it, maybe even interested in seeing it. It opens in Toronto in March and doesn't come to New York until 2008. I think it's over three hours long and is supposed to have some wild staging.

Personally, I think I'm going to wait to see what the reviews say. It could be horrible, it could be fun.

[Space Tycoon]

I think it's too soon after the movies... it won't get the fair trial it deserves. It looks promising though.

[Alpha]

Hmmm...I don't know if I can see Lotr as a musical. The mood seems too serious and sombre, especially in Rotk, to have the characters singing all the time. For me, anyway. I know they sang in the book, but it was done at appropriate parts and not for the whole book.

[KingVoyeur]

The Hobbit would probably make a better transition to the stage.

[Space Tycoon]

Well, so far the advance reviews have been overwhelmingly positive... (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060206.wxbuzz06/BNStory/Entertainment/home)

[neglet]

I like that they say it isn't a traditional musical, but rather that they incorporate music into the story kind of like the poetry in the books. The more I read, the more I think I want to see it.

[KingVoyeur]

I wonder if they're gonna put most of the poetry from the books into song form then. That would be kinda cool.

[Alpha]

Wow...sounds like it's really something. I hope they take it to other places in Canada, like the west coast, so I get a chance to see it.

[alaristhered]

I was kind of skeptical about this until I read the review. It still boggles my mind, though, that they would try to shove the entire story into one play. A treatment like Wagner's Ring Cycle seems more apropos.

Speaking of which, someone once asked Tolkien to describe LOTR as compared to Wagner's Ring Cycle. He answered, "Both rings are round. There the resemblance ends."

[Space Tycoon]

A friend of mine (well, my bartender, more precisely) said she saw it last weekend. She LOVED it. And the kicker is, she wasn't a fan of the movies, and has never read the books. So her opinion is perhaps less biased than others.

I'm gonna splurge a little and see it sometime in the next few weeks, and post my review.



.

[Rowanberry]

If you're interested, here's (http://www.phpbber.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=10887&mforum=halloffire#10887) the review of a friend of mine who saw it about a month ago. NOTE: WARNING FOR SPOILERS!

[alaristhered]

Fascinating. Makes me want to take a trip up North, especially since some hotels are offering LOTR packages! I'll definitely buy this CD when it is released.

[KingVoyeur]

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41473000/jpg/_41473550_gandalf203.jpg
Brent Carver as Gandalf

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41473000/jpg/_41473558_lotr1.jpg

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41473000/jpg/_41473556_frodo.jpg
James Loye, who plays Frodo

Check out a full story here --> Curtains up for Rings stage show. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4834764.stm)

[Rowanberry]

There was a short flash about the musical in the news this morning, probably mostly because of Värttinä's music. :cool:

I won't get to see the show in Toronto, because I'm not going to the Gathering next summer after all :( - but, if it ever gets to London (I think that has already been planned), it would be so much closer to home that I might travel there to see it. Especially if I could arrange to view it with some of my British friends.

[KingVoyeur]

From BBCNews.com

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41480000/jpg/_41480062_rings2_bodyap.jpg
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41480000/jpg/_41480054_rings1_203ap.jpg
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41482000/jpg/_41482924_newrings2_203epo.jpg
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41482000/jpg/_41482902_gandalf1_203epo.jpg
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41482000/jpg/_41482870_gollum1_6666epo.jpg
Rings stage show opens in Toronto

The show has a cast of 55, headed by Canadian Brent Carver (left)
A $25m (£14.4m) musical version of The Lord of the Rings has received its world premiere in Toronto, Canada.
More than four years in the making, it runs almost four hours and is reportedly the world's most expensive theatre production.

Theatre critics have so far given the show, directed by Britain's Matthew Warchus, a lukewarm reception.

The Toronto Star described it as "dull", while the Toronto Sun said it "falls victim to its own hype".

But the granddaughter of author JRR Tolkien praised it for staying true to his classic tale.

Rachel Tolkien said: "Everything to me that is the most important, and the most moving in the book, they've gotten on the stage. "I think it's an amazing feat to have made the Lord of the Rings in three-and-a-half hours."

The New York Times said it was "largely incomprehensible", while the Telegraph called it "insufferably twee".

The musical, which condenses JRR Tolkien's entire Rings saga into one evening, has been beset with teething problems since it started previewing in February.

The first preview performance was postponed for two days, while drastic cuts have reportedly been made in order to achieve the current running time.

Producers chose to open the show at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto after failing to find a suitable venue in London.

The show is expected to move to the capital's Dominion Theatre early next year.

The production stars Brent Carver as the wizard Gandalf, British actor James Loye as the hobbit Frodo and Michel Therriault as Gollum.

According to Mr Warchus, the musical - which has a cast of 55, uses 17 elevators and features 500 pieces of armour - is "like ten shows in one".

"It's got aerial sequences. It's got a moving floor. It's got some of the most complicated technology ever used," he said.

The scale of the endeavour left New York Times' critic Ben Brantley unimpressed, however.

"No-one emerges with head unmuddled, eyes unblurred or eardrums unrattled," he wrote.

"Yet for all the technology, the show's look is often reminiscent of an arts and crafts fair."

"I have a hunch that most will find the show far from hobbit forming," wrote Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph.

"It just goes to prove that you can't always solve a problem by chucking money at it."

Members of the first night audience were more positive, though, with those interviewed by BBC Breakfast calling it "fantastic, amazing" and "really, really good".


Read more reviews here: Stage LOTR reviews (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4841976.stm)

[Lavoruis]

God Lord! do they have make every movie into a musical
whats next King Kong some guy singing in a ape suit Or Stargate:rolleyes:
Please Broadway think of something original if you can't
quit!

[ellenora]

The Hobbit would probably make a better transition to the stage.

:D I actually have two scripts for staging The Hobbit... one of them a musical. I got both when I was teaching middle school for a year and was looking into a stage production the kids could do. I certainly hope this one is a "far, far better" play than the two I read. Elf-maids with swords! :D

~elle

[alaristhered]

I've heard of a lot of children's theaters doing a Hobbit musical and/or play. That doesn't bother me. It's just that trying to shove the ENTIRE trilogy of LOTR into one short stage show seems bewildering. As much as I hate Wagner and his interminable Ring Cycle, at least he had the good sense to chop it up into 4 operas. 4 LONG operas.

[ellenora]

I get a Broadway news letter and the musical was mentioned as being held over in Toronto. It evidently is doing well enough to be given an extended run over the summer.