Anyone who has spent a great deal of time with me knows that I am at heart a “geek” of sorts. I do hold the writings of Tolkien in relatively high esteem (I even managed to shoehorn parts of The Silmarillion into an essay.) However, I am not obsessed and I am able to reasonably pass judgement when it comes to the various interpretations of his work. As such, I have to say that Lord of the Rings: The Musical is a failure. I say this not as a rebuffed fanboy but as someone who has seen enough theatre to know good from bad, and knows the books well enough to understand what they mean and what they have to say; and the show failed in both regards. Despite these failures I was certainly able to enjoy the show, as most everyone who has seen it so far has done. Regardless, this is a deeply flawed presentation.
The Score: The biggest failing of the show, and perhaps the most perplexing is the use of music. The music is not by itself bad, but it is permitted to overwhelm the dialogue, narrative, and even singing in some places. The show was designed with the music of VÄRTTINÄ in mind, and in too many places it seems like the script was written specifically to accompany the music, and not the other way around. The score itself was charming mind you, capturing the folk-ish character of the setting through the existing VÄRTTINÄ elements and carrying the drama with what I am assuming is the original scoring from A.R. Rahman and Christopher Nightingale.
Cast: This was probably the show’s weak link. As other reviewers (most of whom actually get paid for writing this stuff) have noted, several key cast members were underwhelming. In my mind Brent Carver (Gandalf) is the most obvious example of this. The character is one that was written with a great deal of grativas, and regardless of how much the show adheres to the original books, for the show to succeed he needs to be able to carry the plot on his shoulders at parts. I can’t fault Carver’s voice (although his role was seemingly devoid of music), but to me the casting was all wrong. Imagine if you will film adaptations of Shakespeare, say The Merchant of Venice and Romeo and Juliet. Carver’s casting as Gandalf was akin to casting Leonard Whiting as Shylock… which brings me to Evan Buliung (Aragorn.) He chewed up the scenery as Al Pacino would have done as Romeo. The character was written thusly:
Frodo turned and saw Strider, andyet not Strider; for the weatherworn Ranger was no longer there. In the stern sat Aragorn son of Arathorn proud and erect, guiding the oat with skilful strokes; his good was cast back, and his dark hair was blowing in the wind, a light was in his eyes: a king returning from exile to his own land.
Instead we get a brash, Braveheart like character who constantly declares his internal struggle to the audience and emoting entirely through bombast. Pity really since Micheal Therriault as Gollum puts in a tony-award calibre performance as Gollum; evoking wretchedness completely successfully without simply parrotting the work done in the LOTR films.
The Script: I can’t really fault the production team here for shortcuts taken and liberties exercised. As it is written the Lord of the Rings is unpresentable. Be that as it may, the script felt rushed in places where it didn’t need to. Despite excising entirely the character of Tom Bombadil (which is again understandable) the script retains a mention of him at the end, when the emotions of the audience should be invested in the emotional parting of the Hobbits and Gandalf. The scene plays as a transparent table-scrap for the fanboys and a needless distraction for everyone else. The Ents come and go all too quickly, and strangely enough the potential for musical theatre in their appearance is completely neglected in favour of a rousing yet altogether too-long drinking song (and dance) number earlier in the production. I must give credit where credit is due however; the stage-play is itself coherent enough, and with some minor reworkings Wallace and company are able to preserve elements of the story that would otherwise be impossible (in particular the working of Bill Ferny into a man of Saruman’s employ.)
Choreography and Staging: This is the show’s greatest strength without a doubt. Much has been made of the stage, which is arranged on a turntable with a seemingly endless number of lifts which are able to operate independently. This is no doubt impressive, but to my mind the greatest feat was in using an almost complete lack of scenery to evoke settings that are too diverse to actually stage. Instead of running though tree-boles that were constantly being reshuffled by mechanics or removed by stagehands, the cast simply ran through evocative poles held by the company’s ensemble (and at times chorus). This technique is employed constantly, yet never ruins the illusion of the show. The turntable and accompanying lifts are then able to create the general outlines of a scene necessary to evoke an environment without the need for backdrops or stage-set pieces. The special effects were too numerous to comment on, but spectacular from start to finish (save one rather amusing malfunction near the end of the show.)
I guess that about wraps it up. Colour me unimpressed, yet appreciative of the effort.
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