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angelofmusicMusical: Lord of the Rings
Production: Live
Theatre: Theatre Royal, London, England
Date: 12/06/2008
Lord of the Rings - 12/06/2008 - 14:00
This show was the main reason I went to London on this occasion, because I heard it was closing, and oh, it was worth it. While it's always going to drive the LotR purists up the wall because of the cuts that were made, it got the spirit of the story fantastically and really, even if you don't go for the story, go for the visuals. It's absolutely gorgeous. The best comparison I can think of is that it's like Cirque du Soleil doing Lord of the Rings.
A quick summary though - to save time, Theoden and Denethor are merged into one character and the Rohirrim (alas) don't make any appearances. Faramir isn't there either. Going in as a LotR fan, that needled me a little, but I know why they did it. But on a yay note - RANGERS! They put in the Rangers of the North being the hidden protectors of the Hobbits on their journey.
The focus on this show brought it back to being about the Hobbits and their journey. It started with the Hobbits playing on the stage before the show started, trying to catch fireflies and running around over the arms of the chairs and generally making the school parties squeal and applaud whenever they caught one of the fireflies.
I was actually surprised how well it all worked, with only occasional transfers to the department of Backstory. I have heard some people couldn't follow the story, but on the whole it made sense for things like where Bilbo and Gollum both got the ring. In Bilbo's case, with voice over, and with Gollum, the use of barely lit wirework above the stage to illustrate the swimming Deagol finding the ring in the background.
As for the staging, it is absolutely dazzling. They've clearly learned about the art of spectacle. Making Bilbo vanish on stage was an impressive start, and then they have the revolving stage. It had three concentric circles, the two outer ones divided into sections, which could all rise and fall indepedentaly and often did. When characters were running and climbing, it did actually look like a tough journey.
In Helm's Deep, it was brilliantly used with Orcs (on those spring-stilt things and the arm crutches to make them look more unnatural) and men leaping over and about on the outer circles, then the stage revolving to show a fight sequence with a main character in the middle, before it turned and next rotation had a different main character.
Each location was given subtly different props, be it banners in one scene, or trailing golden brances, or even just a change in lighting. The difference in cultures was beautifully highlighted as well, with little gestures of the Hobbits (tapping their feet against each others) and the beautifully dramatic symbolic gestures of the Elves that seemed almost magical. Because it's stage, they had to show the difference in a way that wasn't as obvious as say putting the Elves and Men on stilts to make the Hobbits small, so they did it with little traits like that.
Also, I absolutely adored the semi-tribe markings among the Elves and Humans. on the humans it looked like a legacy from the influence the Elves had in the past, with the Elves all having similar patterns and designs.
It also looked like they adopted a lot from Cirque du Soleil in style, with bungee-Elves (as one of the cast members said herself), a pile of harness work, dramatic flag-twirling, and oh the puppeteer-work. One of the moments I will never forget is when the black Rider appeared at the back of the stage bathed in blue lighting. Just one person with a horse frame and trailing cloak on stilts, but lit the way it was, controlling the puppet head, it was actually shocking and almost frightening. Big and dangerous and scary.
However, the winner of the week for puppet work would be Shelob. While the Balrog was all well and good (and spread across the width of the stage and blasting ash into the audience), a 9 foot spider with legs being controlled by several people and lit in creepy ways was absolutely incredible. I do believe I heard some kids screaming.
Cast-wise, I was actually surprised to find I liked Peter Howe as Sam more than James Loye as Frodo, but I think that came down to the accent. Frodo-type's accent was like nails on a blackboard for me, but that might just be me and the quazi-cornish accent. Sam was lovely and everything SFH wasn't in the films. Supportive, brave, and caring and absolutely lovely. And yay for Sam/Rosie! When they gently knocked feet at the end I almost squeed aloud.
Owen Sharpe as Pippin, of course, was the audience favourite. And there was a bit of a ressemblance to film!Pippin. Oddly, Merry was given very little to do, but I suppose a lot of characters and a little time meant they couldn't give everyone a moment.
Malcolm Storry as Gandalf, until he became "the White", irked me. I didn't like Capslock!Gandalf. He was shouting all over the place. I much preferred Gandalf the White, the more serene, steady version. It was probably something to do with "look, his character has developed".
One thing I did appreciate was the Aragorn/Arwen relationship. Jerome Pradon and Rosalie Craig managed to do more with it in maybe 15 minutes onstage time together than Jackson's bunch managed in the film. The chemistry between the two of them was smouldering, even when they were just looking at each other. The first encounter, when he steps right into her personal space and she looks like she's ready to lunge. You could honestly believe those two were ready to jump on each other behind all the formality and restraint. And having a hobbit saying "I think Mr Strider likes her" made me giggle.
Also, I loved the Boromir and Aragorn dynamic, which is a very tricky one to pull off (incidentally, Boromir as played by Steven Miller, and the Gondorians were apparently Scottish. I had a small giggle attack over that). To get the mixture of wary suspicion, cameraderie and in the end, absolute belief and loyalty is not easy when there's so much going on around you, but they managed it fantastically.
Really, in my little world, this Arwen, Aragorn and Boromir would have been fantastic together as King, Queen and Steward of Gondor. Plus, they actually explain that Arwen gave up her place on the ships to stay with Aragorn, which is why Frodo goes! I like that touch.
Plus, there's a single scene with Arwen and Elrond, which entirely covers their relationship, wherein Elrond, played by Andrew Jarvis, is pleading with her not to make the choice of Luthien and she's being wonderfully defiant.
Back to Boromir, this would be the best single fight-scene performer. Admittedly yes, the ones playing orcs and things were very good, but as someone being the poor guy being massacred by them, the number of people he had to co-ordinate with was impressive.
He was also much better at actually acting while fighting than the chap playing Aragorn. Boromir was ducking, rolling, flipping, twisting, and being the warrior he called himself whereas Aragorn seemed to be having trouble controlling his sword half the time. Of course, rules say Boromir has to die and instead of being arrowed, he was just slaughtered. Smashed to the ground and flattened. I won't deny it, I almost cried.
Who else? Humm... oh! Legolas! I adored Michael Rouse in the role. For once, not a noncing prat of an Elf, but a fierce, stubborn git with a great big side of pride. Plus, being an elf, he got all the hand-movements to do and pulled them off without looking like he was flailing randomly (unlike Elrond *coughs*) I absolutely adored him, because while he was graceful and elegant and one of the best fight-sequence performers, he was still above all things an Elf without being a sissy. This is how Legolas should have been. This is movie!Legolas's smart, dark-haired older brother.
Laura Michelle Kelly as Galadriel was gorgeous, although I wasn't keen on the "You shall have a Queen" speech. They could have been so much more intense and dramatic by uplighting her from below or something, and casting long shadows, rather than her speaking very loudly then falling over. The general reaction was all the kids in the audience giggling. Not quite bold drama we were expecting. However, her voice was goose-bump inducing. Acting, not so much her forte, though I think a lot of that came from trying to be ethereal and coming across as dazed, but singing was incredible.
Oh, and the Ents! Not just one or two, but the whole batch of them, some only a couple of metres high and others a lot more. But I'd have a word with the sound people if I were them, because they did seem to have some difficulties with gettin the accoustics right and the echo and reverb on the voices made it impossible to understand them.
And I just realised I almost forgot Gollum. Michael Therriault deserves a medal. He contorts and twists and manipulates himself so much and makes the two parts of Gollum so very clear in body-language as well as voice. One of the nicest touches on this character was the fact that when they get the ring, Gollum is all "YAY MINE!" and as he suddenly pitches backwards, Smeagol cries out with relief "Master is free!". All the way through, Smeagol is still there, trying to be good and in the end, sort of wins. Well, crispified, but you know what I mean.
And as a last amusing note, there's a second semi-interval, in which people were going "bzuh?" even though the lights hadn't gone up, and several orcs started prowling the mostly dark auditorium, to the squeals of the kiddies. Of course, there is always one kid who doesn't stay where he should and he wandering out of his seat and wandered over and poked one of the orcs. of course, he didn't notice a second bigger one coming from the other direction and turned when the thing was two inches behind him. Looked like he almost wet himself with fright. I may be cruel, but I found it immensely funny.
And as advanced notice, the show is going to Germany after it closes in London, somehwere near Dusseldorf, I believe. After that, there's an Asia/Australia tour scheduled, then a UK tour. The Q&A sessions can be quite interesting :)
Production: Live
Theatre: Theatre Royal, London, England
Date: 12/06/2008
Lord of the Rings - 12/06/2008 - 14:00
This show was the main reason I went to London on this occasion, because I heard it was closing, and oh, it was worth it. While it's always going to drive the LotR purists up the wall because of the cuts that were made, it got the spirit of the story fantastically and really, even if you don't go for the story, go for the visuals. It's absolutely gorgeous. The best comparison I can think of is that it's like Cirque du Soleil doing Lord of the Rings.
A quick summary though - to save time, Theoden and Denethor are merged into one character and the Rohirrim (alas) don't make any appearances. Faramir isn't there either. Going in as a LotR fan, that needled me a little, but I know why they did it. But on a yay note - RANGERS! They put in the Rangers of the North being the hidden protectors of the Hobbits on their journey.
The focus on this show brought it back to being about the Hobbits and their journey. It started with the Hobbits playing on the stage before the show started, trying to catch fireflies and running around over the arms of the chairs and generally making the school parties squeal and applaud whenever they caught one of the fireflies.
I was actually surprised how well it all worked, with only occasional transfers to the department of Backstory. I have heard some people couldn't follow the story, but on the whole it made sense for things like where Bilbo and Gollum both got the ring. In Bilbo's case, with voice over, and with Gollum, the use of barely lit wirework above the stage to illustrate the swimming Deagol finding the ring in the background.
As for the staging, it is absolutely dazzling. They've clearly learned about the art of spectacle. Making Bilbo vanish on stage was an impressive start, and then they have the revolving stage. It had three concentric circles, the two outer ones divided into sections, which could all rise and fall indepedentaly and often did. When characters were running and climbing, it did actually look like a tough journey.
In Helm's Deep, it was brilliantly used with Orcs (on those spring-stilt things and the arm crutches to make them look more unnatural) and men leaping over and about on the outer circles, then the stage revolving to show a fight sequence with a main character in the middle, before it turned and next rotation had a different main character.
Each location was given subtly different props, be it banners in one scene, or trailing golden brances, or even just a change in lighting. The difference in cultures was beautifully highlighted as well, with little gestures of the Hobbits (tapping their feet against each others) and the beautifully dramatic symbolic gestures of the Elves that seemed almost magical. Because it's stage, they had to show the difference in a way that wasn't as obvious as say putting the Elves and Men on stilts to make the Hobbits small, so they did it with little traits like that.
Also, I absolutely adored the semi-tribe markings among the Elves and Humans. on the humans it looked like a legacy from the influence the Elves had in the past, with the Elves all having similar patterns and designs.
It also looked like they adopted a lot from Cirque du Soleil in style, with bungee-Elves (as one of the cast members said herself), a pile of harness work, dramatic flag-twirling, and oh the puppeteer-work. One of the moments I will never forget is when the black Rider appeared at the back of the stage bathed in blue lighting. Just one person with a horse frame and trailing cloak on stilts, but lit the way it was, controlling the puppet head, it was actually shocking and almost frightening. Big and dangerous and scary.
However, the winner of the week for puppet work would be Shelob. While the Balrog was all well and good (and spread across the width of the stage and blasting ash into the audience), a 9 foot spider with legs being controlled by several people and lit in creepy ways was absolutely incredible. I do believe I heard some kids screaming.
Cast-wise, I was actually surprised to find I liked Peter Howe as Sam more than James Loye as Frodo, but I think that came down to the accent. Frodo-type's accent was like nails on a blackboard for me, but that might just be me and the quazi-cornish accent. Sam was lovely and everything SFH wasn't in the films. Supportive, brave, and caring and absolutely lovely. And yay for Sam/Rosie! When they gently knocked feet at the end I almost squeed aloud.
Owen Sharpe as Pippin, of course, was the audience favourite. And there was a bit of a ressemblance to film!Pippin. Oddly, Merry was given very little to do, but I suppose a lot of characters and a little time meant they couldn't give everyone a moment.
Malcolm Storry as Gandalf, until he became "the White", irked me. I didn't like Capslock!Gandalf. He was shouting all over the place. I much preferred Gandalf the White, the more serene, steady version. It was probably something to do with "look, his character has developed".
One thing I did appreciate was the Aragorn/Arwen relationship. Jerome Pradon and Rosalie Craig managed to do more with it in maybe 15 minutes onstage time together than Jackson's bunch managed in the film. The chemistry between the two of them was smouldering, even when they were just looking at each other. The first encounter, when he steps right into her personal space and she looks like she's ready to lunge. You could honestly believe those two were ready to jump on each other behind all the formality and restraint. And having a hobbit saying "I think Mr Strider likes her" made me giggle.
Also, I loved the Boromir and Aragorn dynamic, which is a very tricky one to pull off (incidentally, Boromir as played by Steven Miller, and the Gondorians were apparently Scottish. I had a small giggle attack over that). To get the mixture of wary suspicion, cameraderie and in the end, absolute belief and loyalty is not easy when there's so much going on around you, but they managed it fantastically.
Really, in my little world, this Arwen, Aragorn and Boromir would have been fantastic together as King, Queen and Steward of Gondor. Plus, they actually explain that Arwen gave up her place on the ships to stay with Aragorn, which is why Frodo goes! I like that touch.
Plus, there's a single scene with Arwen and Elrond, which entirely covers their relationship, wherein Elrond, played by Andrew Jarvis, is pleading with her not to make the choice of Luthien and she's being wonderfully defiant.
Back to Boromir, this would be the best single fight-scene performer. Admittedly yes, the ones playing orcs and things were very good, but as someone being the poor guy being massacred by them, the number of people he had to co-ordinate with was impressive.
He was also much better at actually acting while fighting than the chap playing Aragorn. Boromir was ducking, rolling, flipping, twisting, and being the warrior he called himself whereas Aragorn seemed to be having trouble controlling his sword half the time. Of course, rules say Boromir has to die and instead of being arrowed, he was just slaughtered. Smashed to the ground and flattened. I won't deny it, I almost cried.
Who else? Humm... oh! Legolas! I adored Michael Rouse in the role. For once, not a noncing prat of an Elf, but a fierce, stubborn git with a great big side of pride. Plus, being an elf, he got all the hand-movements to do and pulled them off without looking like he was flailing randomly (unlike Elrond *coughs*) I absolutely adored him, because while he was graceful and elegant and one of the best fight-sequence performers, he was still above all things an Elf without being a sissy. This is how Legolas should have been. This is movie!Legolas's smart, dark-haired older brother.
Laura Michelle Kelly as Galadriel was gorgeous, although I wasn't keen on the "You shall have a Queen" speech. They could have been so much more intense and dramatic by uplighting her from below or something, and casting long shadows, rather than her speaking very loudly then falling over. The general reaction was all the kids in the audience giggling. Not quite bold drama we were expecting. However, her voice was goose-bump inducing. Acting, not so much her forte, though I think a lot of that came from trying to be ethereal and coming across as dazed, but singing was incredible.
Oh, and the Ents! Not just one or two, but the whole batch of them, some only a couple of metres high and others a lot more. But I'd have a word with the sound people if I were them, because they did seem to have some difficulties with gettin the accoustics right and the echo and reverb on the voices made it impossible to understand them.
And I just realised I almost forgot Gollum. Michael Therriault deserves a medal. He contorts and twists and manipulates himself so much and makes the two parts of Gollum so very clear in body-language as well as voice. One of the nicest touches on this character was the fact that when they get the ring, Gollum is all "YAY MINE!" and as he suddenly pitches backwards, Smeagol cries out with relief "Master is free!". All the way through, Smeagol is still there, trying to be good and in the end, sort of wins. Well, crispified, but you know what I mean.
And as a last amusing note, there's a second semi-interval, in which people were going "bzuh?" even though the lights hadn't gone up, and several orcs started prowling the mostly dark auditorium, to the squeals of the kiddies. Of course, there is always one kid who doesn't stay where he should and he wandering out of his seat and wandered over and poked one of the orcs. of course, he didn't notice a second bigger one coming from the other direction and turned when the thing was two inches behind him. Looked like he almost wet himself with fright. I may be cruel, but I found it immensely funny.
And as advanced notice, the show is going to Germany after it closes in London, somehwere near Dusseldorf, I believe. After that, there's an Asia/Australia tour scheduled, then a UK tour. The Q&A sessions can be quite interesting :)
