Lord of the Rings Musical Unleashed
Filed under: Drama, Music & Musicals, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, Newsstand
At long last, friends, the Lord of the Rings musical (which, at a cool $24 million, is
reportedly the Most Expensive Stage Production Ever!) has opened. Eagerly awaited by the people whose homes are filled
with J.R.R. Tolkien books and copious special edition DVDs, the
musical - currently playing in Toronto - received a lot of negative reviews from snotty theater critics. Objecting to
the nearly FOUR HOUR running time (clearly these people have not sat through the movies), reviewers, while sympathizing
with the tremendous difficulties of adapting wildly popular films to the stage while somehow finding a new voice (the
musical doesn't), called it "expensively,
lengthily and unspectacularly dull, dull and dull". Ouch.However, since fans of Peter Jackson's films are incredibly unlikely to care that Ben Brantley found the show "largely incomprehensible", one doubts that the negative reviews will have much impact on the show's ability to sell tickets.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-26-2006 @ 11:55AM
wassily said...
I'm a big fan of the books, and I enjoyed the movies, but the idea of a Lord of the Rings musical made me laugh when I first heard about it.
Reply
3-27-2006 @ 4:28AM
Sherry said...
I'm confused, though maybe splitting hairs: isn't this musical based off the books alone and not the movies? Doesn't Peter Jackson have little to nothing to do with this debacle? Let's not sully the great man unless we gotta.
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3-27-2006 @ 6:23PM
Daniel said...
I saw the musical and I found it great, I don't see how one could find it boring, it was quite spectacular.
Reply
3-28-2006 @ 12:58PM
Lindsay said...
I think the show has beautiful visuals, and if you are willing to suspend your disbelief for the evening (which is what you are supposed to do for a night at the thatre!) you will be left with a warm fuzzy feeling. Make up your own mind about the show...don't let the critics do it for you!
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