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[Prospero]

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Surprise--it's not very good, apparently.

Let me hasten to add that I was not a Tolkien virgin when I walked into the Princess of Wales Theater. I read the "Ring" trilogy (and its delightful predecessor, "The Hobbit") at least twice when I was a child. And I sat as happily as a little boy at a PlayStation through the more than nine hours of Peter Jackson's three-part movie version. Had I not, I would not have begun to have made sense of many of this production's aspiring edge-of-the-seat moments, including the final climax in which the pesky ring that causes so much trouble is destroyed. (Please don't write to say I've spoiled the show for you; believe me, I'm doing you a favor.)

The woman who accompanied me to the show had no prior acquaintance with the world of Tolkien, and she gave up on trying to make sense of the story early in the first of the show's three acts. As a fashion editor, she was able to derive some pleasure from discovering parallels between the costumes and current style trends. If you lack such resources to draw upon, you may find this "Lord of the Rings" is less like a spectacular fashion show than a seriously long (more than three and a half hours) drill team competition for high schools devoted to the nurturing of geeks, goths and hippies manqué who are really annoyed that they were born too late for Woodstock.

As for the songs — well, do not be so foolish, mortals, as to think they are mere show tunes. Created by the polyglot team of A. R. Rahman (of "Bombay Dreams" and Bollywood), Varttina (a Finnish folk group) and Christopher Nightingale, the musical numbers are often solemn, incantatory affairs, suggesting Enya at an ashram. Many of them are performed at least partly in Elvish. (If you think that means a lisping Presley imitator, this is definitely not the show for you.) Others recall the folky parody tunes from the spoof documentary "A Mighty Wind."

 

[ToxicAdam]

The craziest thing about this play is this:

The stage show, which was initially budgeted for C$27 million ($24 million) but will likely cost more, has netted more than C$15 million in advance sales so far, said Wallace.


27 million? How did they get backers for such a bad idea? Oh boy.

 

[Duck of Death]

The craziest thing about this play is this:

The stage show, which was initially budgeted for C$27 million ($24 million) but will likely cost more, has netted more than C$15 million in advance sales so far, said Wallace.


27 million? How did they get backers for such a bad idea? Oh boy.

These guys are running the show:

 

[BigJonsson]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I still want to see it though...

But fuck, this isn't good!

 

[Teddman]

Newsweek Magazine was guardedly positive about the production:

This new "LOTR" is a smoke-and-lights spectacle that approaches Tolkien's work with respect. The show was still being tinkered with last week, but it was rousing and resonant—although, because of time constraints, it sometimes felt as if the plot were on fast forward. Shaun McKenna, who wrote the script and lyrics with an assist from Warchus, has made tough choices about which subplots to cut. The decisions have been almost entirely sound, if painful. The demented old King Lear-y ruler Denethor has been axed, along with his son Faramir. On the upside, the stage show lingers longer in the sparkling Elven world of Lothlorien than the movies did—no doubt because the rest of the sets are necessarily dark and forbidding—and it restores the destruction and rebuilding of the Shire to the finale, an episode that Jackson lopped off.

In all likelihood, the previous paragraph made no sense to you whatsoever. No matter. "Lord of the Rings" should play fairly well even to newcomers. The show is full of striking images, from the ghostly Black Riders to the giant spider Shelob. Even the talking Ents (left), always one of the story's goofier elements, charm here, despite looking, unaccountably, like ZZ Top. All these creatures are essentially giant puppets. At its best, "LOTR" calls "The Lion King" musical to mind—reveling in, rather than hiding, the fact that a show is being put on and a big bag of tricks made use of. Whether or not the show eclipses the movies in anyone's imagination, Toronto's hobbits will likely kick up their hairy feet and stay awhile.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11900475/site/newsweek/