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LOTR to Become a London Musical
PenguinRadio writes "Sky is reporting that Lord of the Rings will become 'the most expensive musical ever seen in London', sporting a price tag of 8 million pounds and a running time of nearly 3 and 1/2 hours."
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/Obvious
I can't imagine elves jumping around a stage singing about forest like or whatever...
---
Never criticize religion on Slashdot. You will be modded down for "Troll" no matter how factual it is.
Nope. April 1st isn't for another 18 days. Nice try though.
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
How long before people start having a backlash against LOTRs?
4000 recent awards, the actors are plastered on every talk show, multiple console games, 3 recent highly pushed movies --shouldn't they just take a breather?
Wouldn't waiting a few years and then bringing the story back in a different format be refreshing for the story?
Davak
(Courtesy of Daily Telegraph)
I met him down in Mordor, he gave me the eye -
Da do Sauron-ron, da do Sauron,
And then he nearly slayed me, what a wicked guy!
Da do Sauron-ron, da do Sauron.
Adapting LotR to anything is a bold undertaking. Peter Jackson took the enormous risk to turn it into a movie trilogy, and succeeded, IMO, in the sense that apparently most avoid Tolkien fans seem to approve of his work, even though there are concerns about "streamlining" or "cutting corners" here and there. And I think Jackson deserves an enormous amount of credit for this.
Now, 10 hours of movies are yet quite different from 3 hours of musical. To bring this to the stage in a successful manner, a lot of streamlining and cutting will have to be done, with a tremendous risk of falling short of the original. I will admit that I was sceptical about the movies, and Jackson proved me wrong. I am even more sceptical here.
There are times where it's wise not to tempt fate, and pass on some challenges, instead of taking your shot at it and fail. Come up with your own original story and knockyourself out, no problem. But taint the work of Tolkien with a failed attempt of an adaptation, and people will remember you for a long time...
I think I speak for everyone here when I say "That's the worst idea I've ever heard, and I don't want to play."
Hobbit's scampering about on the stage in a chorus line?
The deadly dance of the orcs?
Sam's love ballad to Frodo?
I can just envision Gandalf dancing, tossing away his hat and staff for a top hat and cane.
There are so many reasons this needs to NOT happen.
I've got a theory, that it's a Nazgul, A dancing Nazgul. No, something isn't right there.
(Frodo)
I've got a theory, that Bilbo is dreamin' And we're all stuck inside his wacky Broadway nightmare.
(Aragorn)
I've got a theory we should work this out.
(The Fellowship except Gandalf)
It's getting eerie, what's this cheery singing all about?
(Gimli)
It could be Elves, some evil Elves. Which is ridiculous 'cause Elves they were persecuted wicked good and loved Middle Earth and fairie power and I'll be over here.
(Merry)
I've got a theory, it could be lunchtime...
[crickets chirping]
Dude, where's my packet?
...when the Fellowship sings "The Hills are Alive..." on the slopes of Carhadras?
Got mead?
"Shakespeare can put all England on stage in Henry IV, I am confident that we can put on the whole of Middle Earth..."
Oy veh...Note that putting the story of Henry IV on stage took Shakespeare two very long plays-- Henry IV parts one and two together are over seven hours, uncut. Even then, the scope of the plays is much smaller than the War of the Ring. Yes, the historical backdrop of Henry IV is a series of wars and rebellions that cover most of England as well as Brittany, but the realy story is much smaller. It's about the (contested) king, his son Hal, and a few other key court figures suh as Hotspur and Falstaff. The real plot is the search for honor by these characters, NOT the wars and the fate of the kingdom. Anyway, to cover the full scope of the war/political story, you have to include two more plays, Richard II and Henry V, which would bring the stage running time to over twelve hours.
So Shakespeare did NOT put "all England" on stage in Henry IV...he was much too smart to try that. Pity the West End producers can't learn from the Bard.
After all, Legolas's antics were not far off....
/. Where the truth
If it doesn't have Leonard Nimoy singing the ballad of Bilbo Baggins, it will fail for sure.
I once read an interview with comic book author Alan Moore in which the interviewer asked him how he felt about his comics being "ruined" by dismal, piece-of-crap movie adaptations (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and the like).
He responded. "Ruined my books? No, they're fine, they're right over there on the shelf."
I feel the same way about this. Certainly it has every chance of being a dismal, laughable production, but the original source material has survived worse lambasting already at the hands of the Harvard Lampoon and a thousand poor imitators writing ten-book doorstop epics in homage to Tolkien. The original LOTR material is going to be just fine.
I think Mel Gibson ought to direct a musical of "The Silmarillion" done entirely in Elvish. Estimated running time: 13 hours!
That ought to cure the general public of their love for Tolkien's material in a big hurry!
Just watch, LOTR, the musical, will be released in Germany under the title 'Das Rheingold'. I think most of the adaptation work has been done on the German version by some guy named Wagner.
I hear Time Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber are doing the music. A snippet of the script has already leaked to the net:
Setting: Stern of ship as it sails West into the sunset.
Scene MCLXXXVIII
(Frodo stands on stool so he can be seen over stern of ship.)
FRODO SINGS:
Mem'ry
All alone in the Shire
I can smile at the old days
Life was beautiful then
I remember
The time I knew what happiness was
Let the mem'ry live again
(Gandalf, stage left)
GANDALF SINGS:
Don't cry for me, Middle Earth
The truth is I never left you
All through my wild days
My mad existence
I kept my promise
Don't keep your distance
(Chorus of elves, dwarves and men start dancing a-la Can-Can, stage right.)
CHORUS SINGS:
Frodo Baggins, Superstar
How tall are you, what have you sacrificed?
Frodo Baggins, Superstar
Do you think you're gay as they say you are?
[Mark Hamill] Luke be a Jedi tonight! Just be a Jedi tonight!
[Mark Hamill & Backing Chorus] Do it for Yoda while we serve our guests a soda!
[Mark Hamill] And do it for Chewie and the Ewoks, and all the other puppets
[Mark Hamill & Backing Chorus] Luke, be a Jedi tonight!