LOTR: Spoilers

[ruthiefan_felix]

Posted: 6/8/07 at 5:34am

Well, I had like 15 mins spare time so I thought I drew the set to explain what happens in the musical to my friend who can't see the show and wud really like to know how some of the stuff works. So I thought 'might as well'... post it out~

***SPOILERS***

The scene where the blackriders get chased, there are 3 big kinda sails:


And then they spin around and surround the Black riders as if they were washed away. Projections of flushing water is projected onto the sails:


-I thought it was really clever when I saw it, esp with the set change after that

This scene is at the end of the song when the fellowship sets off away from the Arwen's place, the fellowship walks through the midle gap whilst the set elevates higher and higer with Arwen in the bottom middle singing her song:


- really amazing again when I saw it… how high did it go??? Probably higher than 'Defying Gravity'

Galadriel comes down in this position:

It is REALLY hard to sing, considering her song is really hard to sing as well and it makes it harder when she has to move around and stay elegant!
That scene, the set is like tat:

Around the surroundings of the set, the branches that reaches up to the Balcony and up the ceiling of the theatre, there are holes and elfs pop their head out! Quite cute! And everyone goes onto the goes and rises up whilst Galadriel is lowered down in the middle with that flower?tree? Spinning and opening up like a flower

This is the final scene where there is a lot of flowers and a road in the middle for Frodo to join Galadriel and Gandalf and then as they walk further back stage, the set elevates higher and at the back of the set is projection of 'crossing the sea to another place'


Hope that helps

[WordedGrace]

Posted: 6/8/07 at 6:13am

Great job! A friend emailed the full changes to the show. I was like WTF..the elves are flying now. Anyway..nice spoiler

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 6/8/07 at 10:29am

Hey, those are cute! :)

[Weez]

Posted: 6/8/07 at 1:08pm

WordedGrace: I'd be really interested in reading that full list of changes. I rather enjoyed the West End production and am wonderful what was up with Toronto. Any chance you could post it, or PM it, or something?

[Tag]

Posted: 6/8/07 at 2:24pm

WordedGrace, add me down for a PM if you can too! Thanks.

[ruthiefan_felix]

Posted: 6/8/07 at 4:11pm

WordedGrace plz PM me as well :P

[WordedGrace]

Posted: 6/8/07 at 4:47pm

Ok! I don't think these are all the changes but this is what was messaged to me. It's rather long! So, bear with me for those who wish to know what's different. I won't spoil the first act because he didn't really tell me much about it, lol.

Right from the beginning of Act II everything started to change. Basically, instead of a rope ladder emerging and everyone starting to climb, elves began appearing from the sides of the trees covering the box seats and from above on circus silks. They were very different in interpretation this time, much more spritely and ethereal. They gave each character a silk which lifted them high into the air, and Legolas sang a brand new song, which was haunting and beautiful, about Galadriel. When he was done, instead of that ball descending in the middle of the large tree branches that opened to become Lothlorien, Galadriel herself decended with the branches opening up all around her while she sang another new song which made a lot more sense for entering Lothlorien as well.

The new LOTR has taken more liberties in interpretation and has decided to be more theatrical in its choices instead of sticking to details in the book. As an actor and theatre-goer, this makes more sense to me in a lot of their choices and it made the production more more dynamic. Personally, even though the specific song, "Entering Lothlorien." from the TO production has changed, I felt that the changes were so much more awe-inspiring than what was there before... although I do agree, "Entering Lothlorien," was a very amazing and powerful song. On the whole, however, all of the musical changes that happened in the show were not only incredibly moving, but served the story so much better.

And the entire show is pretty much rewritten as well. The Prologue in shadows is completely gone, which freed up a lot of time to flesh out characters. The scouring of the Shire is still semi-there, minus bringing Sarumon back as Sharky. Sounds strange, but it made sense, trust me. The scene after Shelob where Frodo gets taken away and Sam puts on the ring and kills a bunch of orcs is gone, but instead they have Frodo recover because he was wearing the mithril coat (I'm so happy they actually made something of the mithril reference when Bilbo give it to him), and what follows is a fantastically touching scene between Sam and Frodo that highlights how much the ring is affecting Frodo, Sam's committment to him, and their mutual decision to keep going. Then they begin their trek up Mount Doom while the army begins to march and Galadriel sings, "Lothlorien," as a song of protection from above everyone (SUCH a better use of that song, so powerful). And Gollum actually falls into the fires of Mount Doom this time. They have the scene on the floor instead of raised. He stumbles back into the centre hole on the stage, and then the stage slowly starts to rise as another actor dressed as Gollum decends from above summersaulting backward in slow motion. Makes SO much more sense.

(That was message number one that was sent to me. So, I asked him to be more specific since I'm loved the TO production and wouldn't have a chance to see it until August. So, he told me more)

Also of note, the lighting for the entire show was completely redone from scratch. I don't know if most people would notice it, but after seeing the TO production 4 times I certainly did.

Helm's Deep was also completely rechoreographed, as well as the final battle sequence (thank GOD!). Although, I must say, I was a little disappointed that they took out Legolas shooting arrows at orcs from above in Helm's Deep. The final battle is now placed behind a scrim, which allows for the dance/fight choreography to be a LOT less cheesy. The main characters still have their own little battles across the front of the stage, but what is pretty sweet is that this time Legolas fights with two swords at once. And throughout the battle, you would get glimpses of Sam and Frodo getting higher up the mountain, so it was like a montage instead of one scene after another, which makes a helluva lot more sense.

Yeah, they really focused down in this new version and gave more time to feel for the characters. Instead of making about everyone at once, they made the story ABOUT Frodo and Sam getting the ring to Mordor, and everything else was about helping them get there. That really helped make the story more comprehensible.

The spritish elves certainly weren't bad, it was a very magical sequence. Just different than Toronto's Lothlorien. Just have to get used to it I suppose.

I didn't feel the ending was rushed this time around. It seemed pretty much the same, but I think with all of the new writing it seemed more in place. I agree, although the TO production was astounding in so many areas, it was a giant mish mash of genres and didn't focus in one area. It really has been cleaned up a lot.


Ok, as I post this he sends to me the full review..(He's a smart ass like that.) If you guys want that I'll be happy to PM to anyone who asks. Hope that helps.

[ruthiefan_felix]

Posted: 6/8/07 at 5:00pm

I do want his full review plz!
I cudnt agree more with ur friend. I have to say Galadriel's songs were most powerful and not at all tuneless as I heard some complaint about the show! I still find the show abit hard to follow though... hope they do abit more change to it!
Anyway... the Helm's Deep scene looked abit ridiculous to me but the Final Battle looked amazing I ahve to say!.... so exciting and thrilling!

I just can't say more about how much I LOVE the music of this show (though very obviously there's quite alot of tunes from Bombay Dreams)

[WordedGrace]

Posted: 6/8/07 at 5:15pm

I don't think her songs were tuneless as much as they lowered the key and chopped them up a bit. The reason he wrote all of this to me was I asked him about the musical sequence for Entering Lothlorien..if you guys haven't heard that check it out on youtube. It's the most amazing piece of music but it's gone from the show. Anyway, I'll PM you his full review, it's long...

[ruthiefan_felix]

Posted: 6/8/07 at 5:45pm

Oh Im not talking about u complaining about the music oh no! Before I went to the show or even when the show was in TO, I read some reviews from others from various boards and some complained about the music being too non-musical~

[WordedGrace]

Posted: 6/8/07 at 5:50pm

I know you weren't I was, lol. Yeah, I don't think they knew what they wanted it to be..spectacle or muscial spectacle.

[Link Larkin Wanabe]

Posted: 6/8/07 at 6:22pm

Did they happen to add any character driven dialog? I felt that was what was missing most from the Toronto production. Rather than trying to fit in useless parts of the book like Eowyn, when really they only give her one line, they could have developed a funny relationship with Gimli and Legolas or something.

Akiva

[courtnyj]

Posted: 6/8/07 at 9:23pm

I saw the show tonight. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.

Love your sketches ruthie!

There wasn't much time to spend on developing complex characters unfortunately....
mostly enjoyable because of the spectacle and the story.

[ruthiefan_felix]

Posted: 6/9/07 at 3:23am

when i said spend more time rewritting the book yes I agree with u courtnyj, I think there shud be more character developement and I think they should try to strip the story to its BARE BARE BARE minimum, just a backbone with a gd character developement which would be easy to follow.

[kombatkoala]

Posted: 6/9/07 at 3:35pm

Love the pictues. I should be seeing Friday. Only really going to see the set/costumes/lighting. And Laura Michelle Kelly. But thanks for giving me a hint of where to look for stuff!