Paul Hart's immersive UK staging of THE LORD OF THE RINGS musical to transfer to Chicago — Page 2

Seeing this tonight. Very excited!

I realize it’s only the first preview, but the one hour thirty-seven minute Act One was a slog to get through.

One song late in the act ended with no applause. The everyone’s a musician schtick created crowded stage pictures. There’s a lot of walking-through-the-audience moments.

Left at intermission. Enjoying the live band and dinner at Harry Carays.

Some quick thoughts:

We made the trip to see this today. The audience was definitely made up of Lord of the Rings fans, and they were very enthusiastic.

The production itself was quite fun and mostly engaging. The Frodo/Sam storyline works much better than the Aragorn storyline. There were some very awkward and clunky bits due to the further truncation of the story. All of Rohan has been cut from this production, as well as all of the characters from Rohan. This lead to a huge lack of character development for most of our main characters in the second half of the show. The Treebeard (voiced by John Lithgow) scene was very awkward in terms of story telling, as were all of Merry and Pippin's act two scenes.

The magic in the show works well because it is all so very simple. I enjoyed the simplicity of the black riders, the balrog, and Shelob which were nicely handled. The scenic design was simple, yet effective. It made nice use of projections as well as the physical set. While there was a tiny bit of audience interaction during Bilbo's birthday, there wasn't much in terms of real "immersiveness" happening. There were several entrances and exits from all around the theatre, including from the ceiling of the house, so maybe that counts as immersive.

The acting of Frodo, Sam, and Gollum was quite good. I was also a fan of Gandalf; the rest was a bit of a mixed bag, but this may have more to do with how incredibly fast they pushed that portion of the story.

This being opening night, there were a few sound hiccups, but I am sure those will be worked out by the end of next week.

I was impressed with how the music was incorporated into the story. Most of the time it feels like a play with music than it does a musical.

While I think there are some real problems with the book, I would give the show an 8/10. We had fun with it and it was worth the three and a half hour drive up to Chicago to see it.

I took a couple pics if the set and curtain call. I can post them after I get home if anyone is curious.

Saw this last night and was sorely disappointed.

I'll preface this with saying I have been obsessed with the score since 2007 and... it just doesn't work with all the fiddly folksy orchestrations they've got. The sweeping and soaring melodies stop dead in their tracks.

I was also pretty disappointed in the sound design. Really difficult to hear dialogue when there was underscoring (of which there was a lot).

Frodo was really incredible. As was Sam and Gandalf. I left at intermission so I can't speak to Gollum.

The voices were... ok. The acting was some of the most amateurish I've seen in a long time.

This show was not at all immersive - if that's what you're looking for. The first 2 minutes or so when we are at Bilbo's birthday, a few actors come out into the audience and interact, but that's pretty much it.

Overall, I'd say skip it unless you can score a cheap cheap ticket.

And yes, I agree, the first act was LONG. I admit I left before it was even over. Sometime after the Lothlorien song I'd had enough.

Another thing I'll note - and perhaps this is entirely my fault - but the storytelling was pretty poor if you don't know the property well. I've seen the films maybe twice? But I have friends who are obsessed so I'm fairly familiar with the plot details; however, when (and now is when I show my lack of knowledge) we were in the deep cave. Suddenly they have to... cross a bridge? That is also fire? If I wasn't mildly familiar with the movies I'd have literally zero clue as to what was going on. It felt like you had to go in with a fair amount of knowledge of the plot or else you'd be totally lost.

It really makes me wish I could’ve seen the original Toronto production. I’d sit through 4 hours if it was intelligible.

wsondheim94 said: "Saw this last night and was sorely disappointed.

I'll preface this with saying I have been obsessed with the score since 2007 and... it just doesn't work with all the fiddly folksy orchestrations they've got. The sweeping and soaring melodies stop dead in their tracks."

How much of the original score is intact? I too have always loved the score. I'm not sure I could get on board with scaled back versions of some of the songs (particularly Star of Earendil, Lothlorien, and Wonder).

BorisTomashevsky said: "This sounds like another case of something being a smash in the UK but perplexing in the US."

Not sure doing well in a tiny regional theatre counts as being a smash in the UK

Any discount codes for this out there? I know 'UNDER35' usually works for all CST shows, but it doesn't seem like its working for this one yet.

I thought this was pretty terrible. I'm honestly not sure what they were going for? The material isn't great but that isn't the problem here. There is little spectacle, but this is not an actor-driven staging focused on a clarity of storytelling. For a retelling of such rich and lengthy material, a source they needed to be cut to the bone, you need to give the audience something to hold on to. Give me flying puppets, giant set pieces, epic fights... or give me five people on stage with minimal props and scenery but lots creativity and clarity. At times, this felt like something you'd see at a very fancy high school with lots of money to throw at their theater program.

The staging is often very literal. Treebeard is a muddy projection and someone drops five or six leaves from the flies. Mt Doom is a projection. Shelob's lair is a projection. The Witch King is a blink and you'll miss it projection. In her first appearance, Galadriel is framed by what looks like a giant prolapsing butthole. There are two uses of puppets, one is impressive the other (which is much more frequent) is sort of sad.

When the staging is not literal, it is abstract to the point of stand and pose pageantry; Often, it is not clear what the audience is supposed to think is going on. There is a lot of times where the actor just face forward and proclaim things. Or walk around the stage (or the audience) signifying they are going somewhere without much other context. There are three or four "fight" scenes where people just sort of run around on stage while someone bangs on drums. It's clear fighting is happening... but not much else. Who is winning? Who is dying? What's at stake? Your guess is as good as mine. If someone else could explain why Saruman and his orcs do sort of a deadly serious heavy metal headbang dance that elicited chuckles. Or perhaps explain why the elves are dressed like diplomats from Pakistan. Or even some explanation as to why the orcs are dressed in hoodies and sweat pants and do aa 60 year old white lady's version "hip-hop" dancing?

Confusingly, the cast is not up to the task of their roles. They all sing fairly well but... there aren't that many songs? This is a Tony- winning regional theater and an international production... that 70 percent of the cast is truly awful is honestly a head-scratcher. I know they saw a ton of actors for this... both in Chicago and elsewhere. I genuinely don't understand. Gandalf, Galadriel, Boromir, Samwise and Frodo are all pretty terrific. Golum is also fantastic but it sounds identical to Andy Serkis. Still... a soulful and remarkably physical performance.

I was DESPERATE to leave at intermission but my friend refused. I'm glad I stayed. About 30 minutes into the second act there's a scene between Sam, Frodo, and Golem that has so much heart, tension, humor and humanity. It's moving and you can sort of see what this show could be if everything around it was better. You see how much Sam and Frodo mean to each other. You see how much their home means to them. And you see them realize the gravity of the situation they are living through. You see all three of them grow. It helps that the song in the scene is probably the best in the show. It helps that there's very little staging to interfere with the scene. And we have three of the best, most committed performers in the show and they have the space and freedom to connect with their characters.

Aside from that scene, it plays like childrens theater or something you'd see at a theme park. In the show's defense, several folks seemed to like it. People were crying. About half the audience stood at the end... tho I can't remember a show at Chicago Shakes that didn't get a full ovation.

Exactly that. And you said it much more succinctly!

I like sitting close too. A couple of things you should be aware of.

The stage is pretty high but with some straining you should be able to see everything except a moment where someone is laying prone on the stage for a bit.

The larger issue is that a good deal is staged around the auditorium so you'll miss that or you'll be turning your head constantly. You won't miss anything essential but it might be annoying.

There are a lot of projections and I found many of them to be unclear from Row H so I'd imagine they will be terribly muddy from so close.

A few reviews...

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/07/29/review-in-lord-of-the-rings-at-chicago-shakes-the-spectacle-competes-with-the-heart-of-the-hobbits/

https://thirdcoastreview.com/2024/07/27/stages-review-chicago-shakespeare-lord-of-the-rings-a-musical-tale

https://www.broadwayworld.com/chicago/article/Review-THE-LORD-OF-THE-RINGS-at-Chicago-Shakespeare-Theater-20240729

https://aroundthetownchicago.com/theatre-reviews/the-lord-of-the-rings-a-musical-tale/

https://chicago.suntimes.com/theater/2024/07/28/high-intensity-lord-of-the-rings-musical-has-precious-little-time-for-emotional-connections

https://buzznews.net/theatre/theatre-reviews/item/5595-spend-an-evening-in-middle-earth-the-lord-of-the-rings-a-musical-tale-at-the-yard-at-chicago-shakespeare-theater.html

https://www.chicagoonstage.com/a-visually-exciting-but-emotionally-underwhelming-lord-of-the-rings/

My original thoughts is that much of the cast was quite good, though there were a couple of duds (Aargon was just...bad). Their ability to play their instruments, act, and dance all in one show was quite impressive.

The story was rushed, as expected. I actually thought the first act's story was more cohesive, w/ the 2nd act being a rush to the finish line. There are parts of the 2nd act that were great (Gollum), but overall that is where the story just jumps to the end so darn quickly. Of course, trying to tell a story across 3 books and thousands of pages isn't easy to do in 3 hours and 15 mins (we got out around 10:15pm w/ a 7pm start time). I don't see how anyone that isn't familiar with the material will be able to follow the show.

When I saw it, the audience was very annoying..which didn't help. People talking (probably too much alcohol) throughout. Then, in the second act, the audience kept applauding over and over again at places where I didn't think it was quite appropriate to applaud; it was strange, and sort of reminded me of encouragement one might see at community theatre (love community theatre, don't get me wrong!).

I was surprised that, for the first few songs, I could actually understand the lyrics being sung. I remember reading that would be an issue; of course, come the 4th or so song, that issue did rear its ugly head and remained through to the end of the show.

My recommendation is - if you want to see it, see it, but I would either hold out for discount tickets (if they are ever offered) or go for the cheapest seats. I regret paying top dollar for 2nd row seats; had I paid only $20-$30 for tickets, I think I would have felt that I would have got my money's worth more then I did.