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!

Spamalot

The lot of us went to watch Monty Python's Spamalot on 29 Nov. From what I've heard of Monty Python, I thought Spamalot was going to be a riot! But unfortunately, or maybe that was the idea, it was mainly slapstick. Compared to Avenue Q, I thought Spamalot paled in comparison. The humour was less witty, and just..less. Wasn't laughing as much, nor as hard as when we were watching Ave Q.

But still, it was entertaining enough :) More enjoyable when you just switch your brain off and enjoy the slapstick ;)

Buckets of Laughter

Last week we went for a 99 Club's Comedy Night at Camden Head Pub with Sathia & Hsu Hsien. Tickets were cheap(er), compared to the comedy nights that take place at Covent Garden. Armed with cider/beer, we somehow ended up taking the front row seats...which at a comedy night is a recipe for tekan..

And true enough, 1 minute into the show and we were targeted! :) But that was all part of the fun =) The place was very cosy, not too big and crowded. So eventually, by the end of the night, most people had been tekan-ed one way or another. There was this especially ticklish lady, who kept going 'hee hee hee' ;)

It was quite good, for 4.50pds you get to hear from about 7-8 comedians. Some were..er..so-so lah, but there were several really funny ones :) I think one of the best jokes for the night was the final joke which ended the show. The comedian was a black lady, who was very very funny. She ended by telling us about how she had a conversation with a friend who was complaining about how the whites had plundered Africa of it's gold, diamonds and other precious jewels. Then she said, "but it's alright, I've been watching MTV and it looks like we've got most of it back!!" haha :P











This week we went to catch the comedy-musical Avenue Q, again with Sathia & Hsu Hsien :) And it was HILARIOUS!! I tell you, anyone who comes to London must go and catch Avenue Q. But though it's a puppet show, please don't bring your children. Let's just say it's er...for adults. But oh man...it was so funny my toes were laughing! The actors/actresses were incredible! They did their puppetry while acting with expression to further bring out the emotions of the puppets, and also while singing. And it's no mean feat, especially for several of the puppetiers who controlled 2 different characters.

One actress in particular really stood out. She was able to do a cutesy, high-pitched, innocent voice of one character, and also the deep, sultry, sexy voice of another. Plus, she could sing in both voices too! And there were some parts where she had to do conversations between both characters, changing her voice with each line!

Another difficult task that really needs practising, were for some puppets that needed two people to control. It needs choreographing of movement to make sure the actors don't step on each other, and learn to control the puppet smoothly such that the audience, though seeing two people control the puppet, still sees smooth and coherent movements for the puppet itself.

Technicalities aside, the content of the musical is just simply great :) Funny to the core, with storylines weaving seamlessly :) A 5 star show for me!