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Jun. 21st, 2007 @ 09:55 am 
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I went to see the LOTR Musical in London last night. I was a bit wary of going, since I'd heard such bad reviews for it, but I was invited along as a 'responsible adult' with my Mum's school, so managed to get a ticket for £25 rather than the £60 face value, so I thought 'what the hell' and went for it.
I AM SO BLOODY GLAD I WENT!!!! Seriously, so much love for this musical. I was so worried that it'd be cheesy, with Aragorn stomping around singing 'I killed an orc!' opera style, but it wasn't. In fact, it wasn't really what you'd consider a 'proper' musical - there was more dialogue than singing, and the songs were so natural. It made me remember that the LOTR books themselves are full of song.
They'd cut a load of things - Rohan was cut out completely, Gondor was turned into a generic 'the city of men'. Aragorn went as 'Strider' throughout the entire musical, only revealing himself to Boromir when he died, and Denethor right at the end. Denethor's madness was cured similar to Theoden's possesion, and he straight away accepted Aragorn as his King. Merry and Pippin's capture by orcs happened completely off-stage, and we only saw their escape into Fangorn. No Eomer or Faramir (Woe!)
But I don't think it suffered for all this. I mean, I could have happily sat through hours more, but I appreciate that not everyone is as hard core a fan as I am, and I did notice some fidgeting near the end.
As a former Drama student it hit all my buttons as well. I mean, I deliberately didn't go expecting a scintilating Dramatic experience, but it was so well choreographed and staged. The physical theatre (by that I mean how the actors used their bodies) was amazing - the elves employed these great hand gestures that set them apart from the other races, and there's this bit at the beginning when the hobbits are running to Bree then Rivendell where you see the Rangers of the North with these sticks, and they become both the protectors from harm; and the trees and bracken the hobbits have to climb through. It's hard to explain, but I squeed when I saw it happen.
The orcs' movents were brilliant. Some of them were on these springy stilt things, and others had shortened crutches on their arms and their movements were kind of like gorillas, kind of not. It worked for me.
The stage itself was too awesome for words. It had so many moving parts, rising and falling to show the different terrain they were going over and the different buildings. Again, it's hard to explain but I have so much love for the stage. I want to marry it and have little moving-stage babies with it.
On a completely shallow note, the actors playing Aragorn and Boromir were absolutely gorgeous (even though Boromir looks a bit like a 70's porn star in all his pictures, he's gorgeous in the flesh), and the stunts and backflips during the fight scenes rocked so much.
I am currently...:  chipper |
Glad you enjoyed it! Didn't we already know that Boromir's a 70's porn star?!
Rohan was cut out completely
That's because they couldn't find anyone willing to play the back end in all the horse costumes.
Glad you enjoyed it! Didn't we already know that Boromir's a 70's porn star?!
Hee, there was this bit in Lothlorien where Boromir's head was close to and about level with Aragorn's crotch. The focus was supposed to be on Legolas singing but all I could think were naughty thoughts about swing!sex.
Wow! It sounds like it's actually really well done. I've seen posters for it, and I'm always thinking, "Yeah, whatever, LOTR musical, as if..." but maybe I'll give it a go if I get a chance.
I guess it goes to show that people actually care about the things they do.
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