Paul Hart's immersive UK staging of THE LORD OF THE RINGS musical to transfer to Chicago — Page 3

Are there any new songs? Is it still more of a play with music? I don’t remember many actual songs in the original production.

At the Friday, August 2 performance, a 6:30 lobby announcement was made, announcing a new performance time of 7:15 instead of 7:00.

I headed to the box office, I received a refund.

I love understudies as much as everyone else but do not need to sit through this delayed show again.

I caught this last weekend and knew going in that it wouldn't be something like the next SIX coming out of The Yard at CSC. The preshow energy leading up to this was quite lovely, with the cast milling about the theater and outdoors (dancing around a maypole, natch) and, it being a nice summer night, it set a good scene. Lots of earnest questions from the cast about "Are you excited for Bilbo's birthday?!?!?" felt like they hadn't worked out their nuanced improve banter yet, but the actor playing Bilbo rustling up some fun leading up to showtime with the youngsters helped to up the anticipation.

As many have stated, the show is just frustratingly beige and not just in its color scheme. It's like a Cliffs Notes version of a Cliff Notes synopsis of The Lord of the Rings novels, which unfortunately loses the critical character building that Tolkien (and Jackson) worked hard to establish. It's all so surface level that it's left for the director and cast to fill in the blanks, and aside from Sam, Frodo, Gimli, Gollum, and Galadriel, this cast is rather pedestrian. I was surprised at how lacking this cast was, particularly the key players. I would have thought roles like Aragorn and Arwen would be some of the most pivotal to cast, but these performances were almost inept in their execution. Aragorn was far worse because at least Arwen contributed to the ensemble/vocal orchestrations and played multiple instruments, but Arwen's acting was straight-up Faerie Tale Theatre.

I thought Galadriel's voice was the strongest by a longshot, it's a performance that feels in another league than the rest. The Saruman/Elrond looked eerily like Richard Gere, but I felt for the actor, who often had to make wild, quick changes to accommodate multiple roles. It also was a bit striking to see the actor playing Bilbo (I'm deliberately leaving their names out so my opinions/nitpicks aren't forever attached to them) in a few different roles but not looking or sounding much different. That's less of a problem with the acting and more of the worst thing about this whole production -- the costumes. I was close enough to see the costumes, ever silken wrinkle, bad stitch, and gaudy bauble, and, for lack of a better description, 'half loop stiches on China silk". Puckering fabric in colors and shapes that made everyone look like sad Ren Fest outcasts, it is so far afield of the overall aesthetic of the show, that I was completely distracted. I think the low point was definitely Aragorn's long sleeve waffle shirt and sweatpants.

Did I cry at the end, though? It's Lord of the Rings, so of course I did. Maybe that says something about the overall impact of the work and less about this piece itself, though. I found myself responding to the message than the delivery.

If anyone is interested, the first act is basically The Fellowship of the Ring, the second act is 15% The Two Towers and 85% The Return of the King. Get ready for every high school and community theater to do this show, if anything, CSC showed how it can be done on the cheap.

Lord of the Rings. Comedy Theatre. Melbourne. 25 May 6:30 p.m. Show. Lottery/Rush tickets through TodayTix. $55 AUD. Dress Circle Row D seats 25-26 - Smack dab center! Clear view of the entire stage. You only miss viewing a few bits which are off the stage in the Stalls. (And frankly, there was no reason for those bits to be off stage) The balcony was empty and the Dress Circle about half full. I think the stalls were full.

The show starts about 10 minutes before the listed time with a pre-show song fest leading into Bilbo's birthday party. The house is lit and actors are gradually entering and interacting with the audience. There is some audience participation, even in the dress circle. And some more audience participation during bows for people in the first row of the stalls. Think the preshow in "Once" without the audience able to buy and drink beer on stage.

First off, this is not a musical. It is a play with music. The songs are almost all "songs" the characters sing as "songs" of the peoples. The songs - except for maybe Galadriel/Lady of Lorien - are not about plot or emotions. You could cut them and no one would notice. And the lyrics were generally unintelligible. Accents are used to separate out the elves, dwarves, hobbits and men - but were not consistent. Gollum was portrayed as in the movies - same accent and manner - and from where we sat barely intelligible. So, maybe it's the sound system at the Comedy or the way sound was mixed for this show.

The visuals were striking - the spider puppet in the end was spectacular - and spooky - and scary even from the safety of the dress circle. The battle scenes were dramatic in light and sound and music and my favorite parts. The projections were excellent and complemented the action on the stage - although I thought they would have done more with a piece of scenery that was set up to be the Eye of Sauron. Many of the actors are doubling as musicians - either in character or just as musicians. They wander on and off the stage frequently.

That said, I can't say I enjoyed it. It wasn't bad. It just was. I'm not unhappy to have seen it. Now, I'm not a huge fan of the books or films. I never managed to read past the first 100-150 pages of The Fellowship of the Ring and saw the films only once. So, maybe you need to be a fan such that just seeing the story you love on stage is enough. There certainly seemed to be honest and major applause from the stalls at the end of the show. But, the story is so sprawling that you barely get a chance to meet and connect with the characters. Even Gandalf is sort of one-note pompous and says everything with great declaration and importance. And the scenes between Gandalf and Saruman were just yelling matches - so, the plot lines were covered up by volume of the voices (and perhaps the sound system) The romance angles are acknowledged and stated but not really shown. Legolas is there - but is so limited that the actor who is doubling as a musician is not dressed as Legolas for bows! I felt like I was watching a story unfold but I wasn't drawn into it. The sprawling nature with serious (but necessary) cuts to the story led to Gandalf saying he didn't have time to explain how he escaped Saruman! Frankly, I found the first act pretty dull and even a bit confusing. There were a couple of Frodo/Sam scenes that showed what the show could do when it took a breath.

The show came in, with interval, at almost exactly three hours (depending on whether you count the preshow) While Act One dragged for me, Act Two was like a riding a racehorse. So, we didn't really feel like the total running time was long. We did see a few lighting and staging mistakes. The stage "magic" for Bilbo's disappearance at the top of the show was clearly exposed to those of us in the Dress Circle. Saruman missed his mark for a lighting cue in one of his battles with Gandalf. An Orc was in the wrong spot when their scene ended and had to scuttle off a bit late. And maybe if we were drawn in more, I would not have noticed these small but noticeable mistakes. But, then, it is live theatre!

2 and a half stars out of five from me.