Here's a fun game to play: go up to a random hard-core fan of The Lord of the Rings, and ask him (or her...) if he would rather go see the theatrical, musical production of the story live on the London stage, or eat a pound of bugs while sitting in a vat of cold vinegar...
I suspect that nine out of ten of these fans (or more!) would choose the former. But they would be very, very wrong! I have just done the former my friends, and I would rather have spent the night with a big plate of ants and vat of the malted liquid. I don't go to a lot of plays -- perhaps one or two a year, but I suspect anyone can recognize crap ipso facto. This play was crap.
To be fair, some of the show was good fun -- the hobbit songs and dances were roughly equivalent to a good Renaissance Faire procution, and who can resist orcs on stilts? ("Orcs on stilts everybody! It's orcs on stilts!") (Also, is it just me, or does the Rennaisance Faire website look a bit "olde fashioned?")
Sorry -- back to the "play." The fundamental problem I think is one of the audience. Who is this thing for? Fans of the book (me) will be very disappointed by the very many changes. Obviously a great deal of change is unavoidable, but I found it difficult admire a work that largely ignores some of the central themes of the book (e.g. the victory of the small but stout and good over great evil; oh and Sauron -- he didn't show up much in the play either). And those who are not familiar with the book will just be confused by all of the characters and unstated motivations. In the end, the only sure audience for this play is the kids who came for all of the fireworks and big spiders and the hot Cirque du Soleil action (and the orcs on stilts of course).
Even if all that was neatly figured out -- even if they managed to find just the exactly perfect three hour edit of a 1000-page book, nothing would save this play from Galadriel. I don't know whether the actor who plays her was having a career-ending bad night, or if she was just the victim of truly awful direction (or both), but I now we were not supposed to laugh at her speeches. But we did -- many times -- and it felt good.
None of this matters that much though, because the current run closes on July 19, 2008. At least I got my tickets at half-price.
I suspect that nine out of ten of these fans (or more!) would choose the former. But they would be very, very wrong! I have just done the former my friends, and I would rather have spent the night with a big plate of ants and vat of the malted liquid. I don't go to a lot of plays -- perhaps one or two a year, but I suspect anyone can recognize crap ipso facto. This play was crap.
To be fair, some of the show was good fun -- the hobbit songs and dances were roughly equivalent to a good Renaissance Faire procution, and who can resist orcs on stilts? ("Orcs on stilts everybody! It's orcs on stilts!") (Also, is it just me, or does the Rennaisance Faire website look a bit "olde fashioned?")
Sorry -- back to the "play." The fundamental problem I think is one of the audience. Who is this thing for? Fans of the book (me) will be very disappointed by the very many changes. Obviously a great deal of change is unavoidable, but I found it difficult admire a work that largely ignores some of the central themes of the book (e.g. the victory of the small but stout and good over great evil; oh and Sauron -- he didn't show up much in the play either). And those who are not familiar with the book will just be confused by all of the characters and unstated motivations. In the end, the only sure audience for this play is the kids who came for all of the fireworks and big spiders and the hot Cirque du Soleil action (and the orcs on stilts of course).
Even if all that was neatly figured out -- even if they managed to find just the exactly perfect three hour edit of a 1000-page book, nothing would save this play from Galadriel. I don't know whether the actor who plays her was having a career-ending bad night, or if she was just the victim of truly awful direction (or both), but I now we were not supposed to laugh at her speeches. But we did -- many times -- and it felt good.
None of this matters that much though, because the current run closes on July 19, 2008. At least I got my tickets at half-price.
Interesting that the Wikipedia pages notes of a petition to release this thing on DVD “for those who wanted to enjoy the show again or for those who could not afford to see it.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_(musical)#Petition
Perhaps we should start our own petition to outlaw both the DVD and live performances. It seems like the right thing to do, to protect the innocent.