Curtain Closes on LOTR

The final performance is already underway. Sad to see it go.
If anyone is attending the show today please post a review!


Edit:

Some London casting news from the Toronto Star:

"...[Kevin] Wallace (producer) looks to the future and to London. He revealed that British Actors' Equity will allow Canadian actor Michael Therriault to repeat his acclaimed performance as Gollum and that he "hopes to finalize the deal with his agent this weekend."

James Loye (Frodo), Peter Howe (Sam) and Owen Sharpe (Pippin) are also expected to be in the cast when the show opens at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on June 19, 2007."

Updated On: 9/3/06 at 01:09 PM

I know someone who moved to toronto to do LOTR and now hes out of work because they're not taking an ensemble members. its really sad that its closing....

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I saw the Saturday Evening show next to last night. It is very hard to describe. The closest thing I can come up with is a closing ceremony to the winter olympics. It had the most amazing eloborate stage I have ever seen! It was like the Les Miz stage on steroids! There were at least four concentric circles that could spin separately and the rings were cut into odd sized pieces that could all move up and down independently. Even moving lower than stage level to produce holes in the floor. I don't have the playbill in front of me, but there are only 6-8 songs. But, some very moving orchestral music for most of the show, two big battle scenes that are very well done and even scene changes that interrupted battle scenes that cut to other places for dialog and then back to the battles that felt like movie cuts without any curtain just lighting and the stage moving (it actually felt like the stage danced at times) The costumes and special effects were fantastic.

There are certainly points where they could add songs to move the plot along. There were several points where I was expecting a song, but there wasn't. It seemed to drag in places (it is almost 3 hours long) I think if they can turn some of the speeches into songs and shorten some of the chase scenes that just show off the stage it would cut down on the fatigue factor.

Edit: there are some beautiful songs. The elf princess had a great voice and songs. I had just seen Spamalot at the matinee a few hours before and kept think of the "Lady of the Lake" and expecting her to say something sarcastic.

The costumes, we especially like the use of stilts for the tree creatures and the black horsemen.

It is a very dark and serious show and could benefit from some lighthearted diversion like Les Miz has with "Master of the House." That may also keep the show from dragging.

Updated On: 9/5/06 at 11:29 AM

Well I saw it 4 times but specifically I wanted to know if anyone had seen the final show.