The Lord of the Rings Musical (long and contains spoilers)

This is one of the musicals Roxi wanted to see this summer. When I found out it was closing July 19, I decided it had better be our NEXT musical .

The Lord of the Rings (LotR) is playing until July 19 at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in Covent Garden. Do you know the muffin man? Yeah, he lives near here–har har. Anyway, this building was built in 1812, but there has been a theatre on this site for about 350 years.

The lobby of Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

We had “nosebleed” seats in the balcony–they were cheap (£15 each) so I was worried they were going to be terrible. What I keep forgetting is that in a theatre this size, balcony seats aren’t bad. I am used to the HUGE theatres in Texas where if you’re sitting in the balcony, you have to have high powered binoculars. Roxi actually prefers to sit up top while I like sitting below. But if we go with Roxi’s preference, we can see four musicals this summer for the price of one, so I’m willing to give up my posh seats. However, I will say, I do believe the people down in the “stalls” aka the orchestra seats probably felt more a part of the musical as opposed to just watching it.

I’ve invited my Roxi to post her review of the musical here. She is, after all, the whole reason we went to see this particular show. I’ll follow with some of my own comments as well as some interesting things we learned during the actor Q&A that we were lucky to attend after the show.

From Roxi:

Condensing a such an epically long tale into three separate movies, 4 hours each, and then sizing each film down to 3 hours apiece must have been a huge challenge for Peter Jackson to tackle, but even more so for whomever decided that this classic should be seen onstage. You just can’t find actors who can put on a 9-hour show every day, sometimes twice a day, and only the most hard-core fans would be able to sit through such a fantasy-filled and confusing production (but believe me, I’d have stalls tickets for every performance). Things have to be cut out, and that’s the sad truth.

Characters missing included Faramir, King Théoden, Éowyn, Éomer, Grima Wormtongue, all of the horse masters and basically Rohan in its entirety. Haldir was transformed into a nameless Rome-dude like elf, and King Denethor of Gondor was portrayed less as a dark, mad corrupt king, and more as a frail old man who looked more like King Théoden under Sauroman’s control, agreeing to fight with Aragorn the moment he saw the shards of Narsil, the sword used by Isildur to sever Sauron’s finger way back when. And yet… somehow I was totally OK with all of this change. No, seriously. And I can be really, really picky when it comes to leaving stuff out…or for that matter, adding in things that never happened in the books.

OK, that is a pretty hardcore fan review. Here’s mine (the clueless chaperone):

Where to start? Well, as you first enter the theatre, you cannot miss the amazing set. One of the pluses of seeing a show with a long run (as opposed to a national touring show like we would get back home in Texas), is that the set is in place for the long run of the show. Which means it can be elaborate and in the case of the LotR STUNNING. When you walk in, you are walking into Middle Earth. The stage and the sides of the theatre are covered with exquisitely made vines from floor to ceiling. In the center of the stage, a huge gold ring.

“Middle-earth comes alive in the auditorium 15 minutes before show time!” our ticket announced. What this means is the characters come out and start luring you into their world doing Hobbit type things like catching fireflies and paling about. At the end of the 15 minutes, you are sucked into this magical world.

I am no LotR super fan, but I was totally blown away by this musical. Barely a musical in my book (just the right amount of singing for this story, though),
appropriate music (no rock solos or pop numbers), this show featured Cirque du Soleil-inspired stunts, an INCREDIBLE undulating, rotating, elevating stage, and fascinating magic. “The costumes, the scenery, the makeup, the props… THIS IS IT!”

I, too was impressed with the athleticism of the actors, not just the ones who did the stunts, but all the actors. The choreography was challenging! I never would have been able to keep up. And my apologies to the actor who played Gollum in yesterday’s matinee performance. I didn’t catch his name, but my gosh! he was awesome. ALL the actors and actresses were great and worked so well together. Big booming Gandalf, true blue Samwise, bumbling Pippin and Merry, thoughtful Frodo, gorgeous Arwen, stalwart Aragorn, and golden voiced Lady Galadriel will sweep you into their world and make you believe.

And here’s what we learned during the actor Q+A after the show. You can learn more about the behind the scenes here.

• They had to add three generators to help with the electricity load since the building is so old.
• There were five months of rehearsals.
• They’ve been performing for 13 months.
• There was a LotR stage version in Canada before the London show, but it was seven years ago when someone thought of doing a stage version.
• There are seven “swings”–people who know all the characters and can slip into various roles when someone goes on holiday, gets sick or injured. My daughter told me it would be “fun” to be a swing. She tends to memorize everyone’s lines during her shows.
• It took two months (after the design) of intense work to build the stage. They actually ripped out the existing stage to put in the amazing rotating, elevating one.
• There is a cast of 53 including off stage crew and swings.
• It takes 250 people to run the entire show (I believe that includes the 53 actors and crew).
• The actors have to show up about an hour and a half before curtain. They do a 15 minute warm up.
• During rehearsals, the creative team pasted on the walls reams of information about each character, which the actors would then spend their spare time studying. Some of the rehearsal times would be spent just trying to “be” Hobbits or Orcs.

So, there you have it. RUN RUN RUN! Don’t miss this show, even if you’re not a big LotR fan. It’s worth going to if only to see how they pull it off. Only 15 more days before it closes.

The Lord of the Rings Musical

Theatre Royal Drury Lane

Catherine Street, London, WC2B 5JF

Closest station: Charing Cross

Finally, Happy Independence Day to all our American friends!

Artwork by Roxi. Mixed Media: Nail polish and ink.

And Happy Birthday, Dad! As you see, your card has a little different theme than last year. Roxi says it’s from the “Mother Land”–haha. (My father is not of English decent, Roxi’s talking about the USA). XOXO We love you!!!!!!!

Have a great, safe weekend everyone :-)