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One-Man Lord of The Rings Comes to Chicago
nomadicpuma writes "In tandem with the return of the One-Man Star Wars Trilogy to Chicago (covered on Slashdot) is a new show giving the Lord of the Rings trilogy the same treatment. The One-Man Lord of the Rings, a performance of all three books by one actor in 60 minutes, will also be showing at the Apollo Theater through February 14, and by all indications looks to be similarly excellent."
turn MY mental illness into a crowd-pleasing source of income, I'd do it, too.
"Wow. Now THAT'S a lot of angry Indians." - Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer
With all the geeks making one man shows, it seems that the next logical step will be the one-man premeir of "self-love:. Heck, there're probably enough "actors" for a simultaneous nation-wide release
Potential Reviews by the Pundits (apologies in advance): "His one man show is the one ring to rule them all!" "The acting dwarfs any other performance of LOTRs" "This one man does the work of elven!" "Mordor, She Wrote!" "His performance was so good, I could write an entire Gollum about it!"
Same way they do "the complete works of Shakespeare" in 60 minutes. They cut out major chunks, and just get the gist of it. They usually do it in a humorous way as well. I don't think this is intended to be a word-for-word rendition, because if it was, he would have to be talking so fast no one would understand a word he was saying and the play would suck.
I bet he leaves out Tom Bombadil too.
If its only one man, then who is going to carry Frodo?
Try 12 hours. You're missing the "Extended-Super-Duper-I-Have-No-Life" DVD edition.
" edition.
Well, for some people it's the "Extended-Super-Duper-Just-Scored-A-Quarter-Ounce
Though technically, it's a company and not just one dude, The Reduced Shakespeare Company is pretty good at this sort of thing, too. By all means, if you get a chance to see them, do so. All 37 plays in 97 minutes, not bad!
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
My wife and I saw the "One Man Star Wars Trilogy" as my b-day gift to her on Dec. 19th at the Apollo Theater in Chicago (on Lincoln Ave.). The tickets were $19 each plus tax. Seating was for 175 and maybe 125 people were there on a bitterly cold 5-degree-fahrenheit Sunday afternoon.
The show was fantastic! We are relatively big star wars buffs, so the trivia contest at the start of the show was welcome. We got most of them, but several were so hard that an 11-year-old had to get it (the exact wording of Han Solo as being 'the main course' for the Ewoks).
The person doing the show (sorry, don't remember his name) was very talented. Several people sneezed, had to step out to the lobby, or otherwise 'interrupted' the show, and he acknowledged each humorously, in character and out, then picked up where he left off. This to me was the mark of someone who has paid their dues in improv theater being a very, very fast think-on-your-feet performer.
His intonations and body language were exquisite. He managed to make fun of the characters and still be true to the spirit of the show quite effectively. We had a wonderful night of it, a very funny and very worthwhile show!
At the end of the evening, he gave us a preview by doing Golum ("precious") and we knew it would also be a great show.
This is high praise from me. I've seen quite a bit of improv and small-performance theater due to a friend being in the scene and being invited to a variety of performances.
Just my 5 cents. We'll see him again almost assuredly. I hope he makes a good DVD deal recording his performance.
-- Kevin
Unitarian Church: Freethinkers Congregate!
I saw this at the Edmonton Fringe Festival this past summer, and as a devoted LOTR fan, I have to admit, it was AWESOME. One caveat -- the play I saw was an adaptation of Peter Jackson's movies, not of the books themselves, so be prepared for the same changes as in the movies. The videos just don't do it justice.... If you have a chance, go see this. You will not be sorry. The bigger fan you are, the more you'll appreciate the little jokes, the sideways glances, the amazing characterizations. The casual LOTR fans left amused, but not moved. I only wish that I could have seen it more than once.