The Lord of the Rings |
Frodo sings! And for that matter, so do Aragorn, Arwen Evenstar, the pitiful Gollem, and some 55 inhabitants of Middle-earth in the world premiere of the musical The Lord of the Rings, which opened in late March at Toronto’s Princess of Wales Theatre. Despite a decidedly mixed response from the critics, the show garnered 15 nominations for the Dora Awards (Toronto’s Tonys) and is scheduled for London in 2007. You don’t need Elven powers to predict that a Broadway run will follow.True, nothing less than the wizardry of Gandalf could stuff three books’ worth of J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy (quartet if you count The Hobbit), enhanced by visual images from Peter Jackson’s film trilogy, into a single evening at the theater. But for Tolkien groupies — this writer included — the power of the stage version holds, no matter the inconsistencies, the omissions, or the need for a second bathroom break over the 200-minute-long evening.
The musical behemoth defies conventional show-biz statistics, weighing in at an investment of $25 million, which pays for the succession of special effects and a mechanized set designed by Rob Howell that not only revolves but rises and falls in separate orbit-like patterns. The score, alternating between folksy ballads and spiritual echoes from beyond the spheres, took no less than a team of 11 to create: Bollywood composer A.R. Rahman, the nine-member Finnish group Värttinä, and Christopher Nightingale. The Tolkien material was adapted by Shaun McKenna and Matthew Warchus, the hot-shot British director who also wrestled the monster onto the stage.
There are Cirque du Soleil tricks a-plenty, including an act-one climax when Balrag, here the mother of all puppets, sucks Gandalf off the under-mountain bridge to his supposed doom, complete with bits of debris blown into the audience. But the most winning moments come when the frenetic scenario returns to human scale. At the beginning, the Hobbits cavort in morris-dance figures embellished by Tommy Tune–like choreography devised by Peter Darling. Toward the end, James Loye’s Frodo and Peter Howe’s Sam Gamgee sit quietly and sing a home-town song from the Shire that’s echoed pathologically by Canadian actor Michael Therriault’s skittering Gollum. Except for Therriault in the show’s star turn, the cast is somewhat subdued, as if unable to shake off the enchantment. Brent Carver, who’s given lead billing as Gandalf, is strangely underused. Evan Buliung’s Aragorn, protector of the Hobbits, heir to the throne, and resident hunk, is trailed by Carly Street’s Arwen in a way that makes too much of the original thread of a love story.
Whether folks who are new to Tolkien’s books and haven’t had the primer of Jackson’s films will be able to follow the multiple plot lines is hard to tell, even with a three-page synopsis in the program, but a sellout audience sat rapt at the performance I attended earlier this month.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS | Princess of Wales Theatre, 300 King St West, Toronto, Canada | Tickets on sale through September 24 | $26-$125
On the Web
The Lord of the Rings: http://www.lotr.com
