Lord of the Rings - The Musical

I brought myself out for a Valentine's Day date to watch The Lord of the Rings musical at the Theatre Royal on Drury Lane.

There's weren't many matinees that day, so my choice was limited, but I wasn't disappointed. The show was really good!




When you first go into the theatre, you are transported into Middle Earth. The sides and roof of the theatre were covered with vines, and the hobbits were going about their village activities like gossiping, catching fireflies, fishing, etc.




I loved their stage and their staging. The stage itself is like one giant turntable, but there are concentric circles that can turn in different directions. Also, the circle is cut into eight slices and each slice (and segment of the slice) can be raised to a height of about 2 metres. I've never seen such a versatile stage before. And they utilised it to great effect. For example when the fellowship first started out, they gave a sense of journeying across varied terrain by continually manipulating the stage - sometimes they would climb hills, walk through valleys, jump across crevices, etc. And when Frodo and Sam were climbing the cliffs, the different slices were raised to different heights to give the visual effect of them climbing.

I also thought they brought out the fearsome evil of the wraiths very well. Those playing the wraiths stood on silts to make them much larger. These wraith were kept in the shadows such that you didn't know they were on stage. Then suddenly the strobe lights would go on and show their presence. All the while when the lights are flashing the wraith's 'horses' would be tossing their heads and searching for the hobbits. It was a scary feeling really. I heard someone behind be say it was even more scary than in the movie!

The other scary part was when Gandalf was fighting the Balrog in Moria, the Balrog was made to seem immensely huge such that only his head and shoulders could be seen on the stage; and the whole theatre was filled with smoke and wind was blowing so strongly such that even though I was sitting at the top floor, everyone's hair was flying! Add red flashing lights and Gandalf's "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!", and you feel like you are brought into the story. The same person behind me said, "I think I'll have nightmares tonight!" :)

I also thought their portrayal of the relationship between Frodo and Sam was much less mushy than in the movie. They managed to show the brotherly love and care between the two characters without falling into mushiness.

Although the musical version was a super abridged version of the story (much much more abridged than the movie), their adaptation of the story for the stage was very good. I think the idea was to give the story, but more than that, to give the feeling behind the story, and that I think it did quite well.

My only grouse is that Gandalf in the musical was not as powerfully portrayed as in the movie.

Overall, even though it was an entertaining musical, my favourite of all the mediums is still the book! Gotta love the original!