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Lord of the Rings Musical to Open in Toronto
MitsuMirage writes "Mirvish Productions is hosting the world opening of The Lord of the Rings musical in Toronto in March 2006. Originally planned for London, UK and to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the publication the trilogy, the musical was moved to Toronto when no theatre was available." From the article: "With a cast of 50 and elaborate staging, the audience will be "plunged into the events as they happen...We have not attempted to pull the novel towards the standard conventions of musical theatre, but rather to expand those conventions so that they will accommodate Tolkien's material." A look is also available at the BBC. We originally mentioned the musical when it was slated to run in Britain.
40 characters. 3 masterworks. 3600 seconds.
One Man to do it all.
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
I'm waiting for Lord Of The Rings On Ice!
I thought for sure they were talking about "Fellowship" the Tap-Dancing hobbit musical in LA...
y le/TapDancing.Hobbits.Bring.New.Light.To.ring-8375 27.shtml
http://www.dailytrojan.com/news/2005/01/21/Lifest
"Love is like pi - natural, irrational, and very important." (Lisa Hoffman)
"I love legitimate theater."
"This play has everything!"
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
Luke, be a Jedi tonight! ...
Just be a Jedi tonight!
Do it for Yoda, while we serve our guests a soda.
Uh, and do it for Chewie and the Ewoks, and all the other puppets
Luke, be a Jedi tonight!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Troy McClure as Frodo
Beautiful! Any word if this is coming to the United States?
That ought to be an interesting "interpretation."
I seriously wonder (not being involved in theatre at all) how they plan on pulling that off. In the movies they used CGI, but on a stage both the space and number of people is limited. Any theatre buffs have any idea on how they'll pull this off?
Here's hoping they cut Tom Bombadil out of this one, too...
Frodo of the nine fingers and the ring of DOOM.
"Hi, I'm Troy McClure! You might remember me from such Tolkien epics as Hobbit 2: There and Back Again, Again and Dial M for Mordor..."
/ Oh, my god - I was wrong:
/ It was Frodo all along...
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
Beautiful! Any word if this is coming to the United States?
I believe it has been. You must've missed it by about 150 years.
that they could have managed to reserve a theater. :)
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
All the hotel web sites have been slashdotted.
Pete Carr Owner Chatmag.com
Fellowship! The Musical Parody of "The Fellowship of the Ring." Playing in Hollywood for only another week or two, unfortunately, but hopefully they'll continue it somewhere down the line. We've seen it twice, and it's damn hilarious.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
I'm off to destroy the One Ring... after which all the hobbits will siiiinnngggg...
My pressshhhhious... my pressshhiiiouuusss... we must get the ring backs to ussssss...
Frodo! Frodo! Be careful where you trod, lest that Golum take the ring whilst you nod...
Sam, you have eaten all the fooooood. That was very ruuuuuude! I'm most upset... as your lack of respeeeeeccttt...
To the mountain! To the mountain! The ring will go in the fire, or I am a big fat liaaaarr...
What shall I do? The ring calls me so... I must say NO! I must say NO! Into the fire you go!
My pressshiousss... I will not linger! I will get you and eat his finnngeeerrrrr!
Into the lava, into the lava!
[chorus] We're a happy Hobbit town! Our frowns have all turned upside down!
[curtain drops]
Trolling is a art,
April 4th is coming sooner and sooner!
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
... but I assume that once you fill the stage you make it start to look like there are a lot of people and you get the point.
Either that or they will use a background which has faces painted on them (and they would also move that back and forth).
On the other hand, they may not show the battles at all because theater is supposed to capture the drama and comedy and so forth, not the action. They may simply say "The battle of Evermore has started" and show the fall out (dead bodies, etc).
Get your Unix fortune now!
Audience members are given swords and colored jerseys and fight it out to actually determine how the play will end.
alright, this is "aesthetically" more ok compared to the tons of merchandising (games etc u name it) but still.... Give us a moments pity!
LOTR was made into movie, fine, good, soundtrack was awesome (i play it regularly) but how about spending some book time with it?
i've seen the movies so much i feel an urgent need to refresh myself on what really happened... and now this? please....wait 15 years?
We have not attempted to pull this post towards standard conventions of slash dot mockery, but rather expand those conventions to include this post.
This musical looks more appealing to me.
I have no idea how they are going to handle the flying cow.
One (sung by Gandalf, to the tune of "One"):
Well it's - one Ring,
To bind,
And hold them in the darkness -
Tonight
It's One, but we're, not the same
We'll just hurt each other
I'm Too Sexy (Sung by Aragorn):
I'm - to sexy for my sword,
To sexy for my shield, to sexy for my shirt
So sexy it hurts,
And I'm, to sexy for shampoo,
My hair is long and greasy,
But girls don't think I'm freaky,
No way I'm becoming the High King
I'm a Ranger, you know what I mean,
And I'm dating a real hot Elf girl
Oh, an Elf girl, yeah.....
Fish Heads (Sung by Golem)
Fish heads, fish heads,
Rolly polly fish heads
Fish heads, fish heads,
Eat them up - yum!
(OK, so no word changes - but why mess with a classic?)
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
Isn't GNAA already a United States association?
I hope they keep Tom Bombadil in this adaptation.
That's only funny because you're deadly serious.
...this isn't going to help eliminate the running jokes about gay subtext between Sam and Frodo.
"Me? Lady, I'm your worst nightmare -- a pumpkin with a gun."
If the 'inspired' music of "the Hobbit" animated movie is any sort of indicator we could be in for a treat!
Nuff said.
No, but the United States will come to it when GWB invades Canada. (+0.5 funny, but lame)
LOTR... Musicals... Slashdot member...
I am now in possession of the trifecta of "never to be laid". =)
Why does he have nine fingers?
Toronto is our version of Minas Morgul. Their motto is "one city to rule them all, from the center of the universe, for the rest of time".
Wait until it hits the road...
They ran out of theaters in Britain did they? Something smells fishy. Juicy sweet fishy.
The preciouses is ourses!
You're damn right I'll have opening night seats..
I am the maverick of Slashdot
There's no way Matt Groening crew will pass this up. Guaranteed this is going to be a Simpsons episode about this.
"Love is like pi - natural, irrational, and very important." (Lisa Hoffman)
I immediately had a vision of that guy Michael Flatley from http://www.lordofthedance.com/, playing the part of Frodo, tippity-tapping his way across Middle Earth to Mordor destroy the One Ring, while a bevy of Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, and Men dance a jig behind him with arms straight down at their sides.
Shit, Thomson, wasn't it your responsibility to book us a theatre?? :P
---
Frankly, I'm a little overfed on LOTR now. Don't get me wrong, best book in the world, but too much hype.
---
Curious of the prices, I typed in 'princess of whales toronto' in the Firefox address bar. Little did I know that I would end up on a page for sex tourism...I couldn't duplicate it, so I must have typed something wrong. http://rotator.siam-data.com/Choice.html for those interested
(...) it was slated to run in Britain.
should't be 'it was slated to ruin Britain'?
The books are already there. I'm not a fan at all, but fans have the originals to slobber and drone about...why must the rest of us be crushed under the weight of this shit too?!
The ultimate form of tribute is jazz hands.
OK, so I know this is a politically incorrect pun (on this and my own post), but uh, isn't a LOTR Musical flamebait? I mean....
The world is going to hell in a jet-propelled handbasket.
...with Elmer Fudd as Sauron.
Sauron:
Kill da hobbit!
Kill da hobbit,
With my orcs and flying Nazgul!
Frodo:
Flying Nazgul?
Sauron:
Yes, flying Nazgul!
Let me give you a sample...
I'm not good in groups. It's difficult to work in a group when you're omnipotent. - Q
Do they have Orc's singing "Where there's a whip, there's a way"?
Real SUV's don't have cupholders
It's 5:42 A.M., do you know where your stack pointer is?
!!! This is going to be AWESOME.
You have a four-digit UID and you don't recognize that quote? Inconceivable!
Wow, just imagine how many people will be pissed when LOTR wins 11 Tony's too!
This is not the greatest sig in the world, no. This is a tribute.
Track 2:
...
Darth Vader is not my father
He's just a dude who say's that I am his son
This is Informative?!?! You're wasting time and space here!
Wait? You mean I'm still in my fembots costume?
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
That sounds strange, considering how many theaters there are in greater London. The official line is, "no theatre [was] available to accommodate the massive and technically complex three-hour production". I suspect there was, but the one in Toronto was cheaper. So if the Toronto production doesn't do well enough to justify the expense of staging it in Toronto, the show will never make it back to London.
And who can forget those hairy-foot-tapping show tunes,
"I'm Just Wild About Merry"
"Send In the Orcs"
"Hello, Gollum!"
"Get Me To The Crack On Time"
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
A huge fucking book AND probably over 9 hours of film making led up to the scene where they finally throw the ring into Mount Doom and you're asking why Frodo had 9 fingers. Whats a matter did the most pivotal scene in the entire trilogy which the film had been building up to catch you off guard?
Jonathanjk.com
... Wagner influence there might be in the staging of it. Regardless of what his politics may or may not have been, the Ring Cycle (Der Ring des Nibelungen) occurs to me as being a way that it could be done. Aside from the obvious comparisons to draw (the length of the thing comes to mind... imagine sixteen or more hours of LOTR musical), I imagine that opera would be a more suitable format than a musical (as other posters have quipped, after this it goes on ice...).
From the first Act:
There is one sword
That he could not shatter
Nothung's splinters
Would baffle his strength,
Could I but forge
Those doughty fragments
That all my skill
Cannot weld anew.
Could I but forge the weapon,
Shame and toil would win their reward!
Sound like something from which the LOTR musical could take inspiration from?
I heard that your library burnt down and destroyed your only two books - and one was not even coloured in yet.
A whole chorus line of Orcs in straw boater hats with Canes dancing around Minas Morgul while an off stage voice sings a (very baritone) ditty about crushing all the friends of the light.
[lights fade as Mount Doom erupts dramatically in the background and immediately fade in stage left]
A drunk Sam and Frodo jaunt through the Shire [stage right to left] singing "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine..."
[qeue Gandalf stage left]
Startled Hobbits quickly turn to overjoyed hobbits and hug the old Wizard. However they are quickly stricken with panic as Gandalf throws the ring round Frodo's neck and tells him to get to Mount Doom.
[the entire cast of Heroes enters stage left]
All the heroes (backed by a chorus of elves in armor and Rohirrim on horseback) sing an uplifting ballad about hope in the darkest hour.
[curtain falls on Frodo down on one knee spotlighted center stage]
INTERMISSION
An invisible Frodo is wrestling with Gollum on the brink of Mount Doom. Gollum bites off Frodo's finger falling into pit, destroing ring.
[Final chorus enters... everyone together... orcs hand in hand with hobbits... and Sauron arm in arm with Aragorn... Saruman and Gnadalf holding both hands crossed in center and spinning]
Sing about good vs. evil
FIN
Ring of Fire, sung by Frodo. Sam and Gollum provide background vocals.
Just what we need, another endless musical ring cycle saga lasting days. (And they'll probably still cut the bit in the Shire at the end.) "a full performance of the cycle takes place over four nights at the opera, with a total playing time of about 15 hours" - And you thought watching all the DVDs was a bad case of numb-bum. Wagner's lawyers will be in touch.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Here is a link to the wiki page.
He started a business called honest Eds, which is now a landmark in Toronto. Imagine a crummy little store, with a GIANT "Honest Ed's" sign, and thousands and thousands of light bulbs lit up just like the las vegas strip. All the lights turn off/on in the usual patterns. One thing to note also, I don't know if this is true, but one of his marketing gimmicks was to stand infront of his store with a big fist of $1 dollar bills. He would bet people walking by that they couldn't go into his store and buy something the liked for a dollar. Regardless if it worked or not, people did go inside and find all of his great deals.
Treat me like a marketing stat, and I'll treat your movie like a series of ones and zeros
The Fellowship of the Bling -- Where Frodo and his gang of Hobbit Bloods must protect his phat gear from the rival Crip orcs. Treebears to be played by a very large LAPD officer.
News Reporters Make Tasty Polar Bear Treats!
Hey you guys, now you've spoiled it for him...I tell ya, it's getting harder and harder for people who live under a giant rock in this day and age.
"Me? Lady, I'm your worst nightmare -- a pumpkin with a gun."
THEN came the pretty decent BBC series. Not bad. Amusing and listenable
THEN came the horrific attrocity known as Bakshi's films. Jesus cried when it was made.
THEN came Peter Jackson, self-style Hobbit. What a pity this unwashed Kiwi halfling couldn't have even made a shallow attempt to follow the story.
FINALLY the musical. Sure to satisfy the cravings of every semi-literate retard!
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
If the musical is a success, maybe they'll adapt it into a book. Or maybe even a trilogy. If they're lucky, they might be able to get a movie deal out of this.
Anakin Simpson: If you're not with me, then you're my enemy--ooh, donuts!
The correct phrase is, "Come on ya fuckin' faggoty Slashmod bitches!"
Ok, it's flamebait, I know, but really...
Lord of the Rings and musical in one sentence? Either of them, alone, is bad enough, but together, I'd rather spend several hours listening to Donald Rumsfeld recite his favourite passages from Revelations...
-- Even if a god did exist, why the fsck should I worship it?
"Why does he have nine fingers" is another line from the song, IIRC.
You recognised the original quote, but not the followup? Inconceivable, indeed!
Frodo of the Nine Fingers
And the Ring of Doom
Why does he have nine fingers?
Where is the Ring of Doom?
Ok, I haven't read the book for awhile, so sue me. ;)
/Hands over Tolkien geek card
Normally, I don't cotton to royalty, but I'll make an exception in this case
Just part of my boycott of everything "Lord of the Ring"-ish. Besides, you KNOW they would have had to find some sinecure for Sir Elton John ... and maybe another one for His Royal Highness Dumbo, and/or Lady Parker-Bowl-legged.
A huge fucking book AND probably over 9 hours of film making led up to the scene where they finally throw the ring into Mount Doom and you're asking why Frodo had 9 fingers. Whats a matter did the most pivotal scene in the entire trilogy which the film had been building up to catch you off guard?
They made a movie?
How has the thread gotten so far without a link to The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins?
Goo goo g'joob.
Oh don't hand it over just yet. I don't think that was in the book, just a cheesy Glen Yarborough song from the ueber cheesy Rankin-Bass animated version of Return of the King. Of course, Glen used Tolkien's poems as lyrics in the Rankin-Bass production of The Hobbit, so it might be in the book after all, in which case maybe _I_ should hand in my Tolkien geek card...
Do you realize that was a parody of "The Ride of the Valkyries" by Wagner?
Your joke would have been excellent, but see... Wagner and Tolkien's works are well... what can I say... similar. And I doubt an opera about LOTR couldn't possibly match Wagner's masterpiece of art.
You're right. I checked the book, and they don't actually write out the song. The bard announces the song title, then "..the host laughed and wept, and in the midst of their merriment and tears the clear voice of the minstrel rose like silver and gold.." (RotK silver anniversary edition, p232). So to the grandparent, nyah! ;)
By the way, I too have seen the animated RotK, and it is indeed cheesier than muenster. As if skipping directly from Bag End to Mordor wasn't bad enough, the 70's-style music is way too self-indulgent. (unlike the tolerable soundtrack to the Hobbit, probably because those were mostly based on Tolkien's work)
So....how do they get the big spider to sing? I'll pay for a ticket just to see that. m
You people scare me.
Gunillablue
DarkMantle I been bored, so I started a blog.
...it'll be done in Bollywood, right?
And the marquee read:
MARK HAMILL is NATHAN DETROIT
PEPPER STEAK is THE ENTREE
Vino, gyno, and techno -Bruce Sterling
...that Canada would actually ruin anything. Whatever happened to your youthful innocence, Canada?
Aaaaaaayyyyeeeee!
10 years ago I did a Theatrical version of Lord Of the Rings and there was quite a bit of singing.... A large number of the characters where had a sex change.... We fitted the whole thing into 4 hours (ouch)... It was a youth project and recieved a queens grant. Oh yeah I played Frodo
or we'll stop sending you all our tax dollars by electing Liberals. Yeah, like that's gonna happen :)
This isn't real life, it's just some fantasy.
Look! It's Sauron's eye, threatening catastrophe.
His tower is tall, and hobbits are small and wee...
Frodo: I'm just a poor boy, this ring is haunting me.
Gandalf: The Nazghul come! It's time to go!
Samwise: I wish I had some potatoes.
Gollum: Other than my Precious, nothing really matters to me... To me....
Gimli: Legolas! I've just killed an orc!
Legolas: That's nothing Mr. Dwarf, Why just now I killed my fourth...
Aragorn: Arwen! Our love's just begun, but I fear it's time for me to go away...
Gollum: Mastah! Oooooooooooo! Get down! The Nazghul fly!
Frodo: Sometimes I wish I never got this ring at all...
Samwise: Carry on! Carry on!
Gollum: Without Precious nothing matters...
Theoden: It's too late, our time has come.
How do we fight such hate?
Aragorn: Let's ride out! We'll all do great!
Pippin: Goodbye, Merry buddy, I've got to go.
Merry: On the battlefields of Gondor, I'll see you...
Gollum: Mastah! Oooooooooo! (Frodo: Where do those Urukai go?)
We runsiz out of time! This staircase we must climb! (Samwise: But it's so tall...)
[nonsenical flashback]
Gandalf: I see a little silhouetto of an eye!
Saruman: Mordor rules, stupid fool! Can't you hear the eye calling? Thunderbolts and lightning, Lord Sauron is calling thee!
[switch scenes]
Frodo: Samwise Gamgee! Samwise: Mr. Frodo!
Frodo: Samwise Gamgee! Samwise: Mr. Frodo!
Frodo: Samwise Gamgee, off the road!
[chorus]: The Nazgul come!!!
[flash forward]
Gollum: I'm just a poor boy, give my Precious to me!
[chorus]: He's just a poor boy, corrupted for eternity! The ring twisted him into this monstrosity!
Faramir: Give me the ring! Frodo: No! Let me go!
Samwise: Won't you let us go?
Fa-ra-mir? Faramar: No! I will not let you go! Frodo: Let me go!
Samwise: Hey! She-Lob! Shelob: No! I will not let him go!
Samwise: Let him go!
[Chorus]: It's Mount Doom!
Frodo: No! I will not let it go! Samwise: Let it go!
Frodo: I will not let it go! Samwise: Let it go!
Frodo: I will not let it go! Samwise: Let it go!
Frodo: No no no no no no NO!
Samwise: Oh Mr. Baggins, Mr Baggins, Mr Baggins let it go!
Gollum: My Precious! No! There's a devil rising up in me, in me, in meeeeeeeeee!
[Fight scene to the guitar solo]
Aragorn: I bind all you tormented spirits to me!
Fulfill your oath and then I'll let you go free.
[Cut to Gondor]
Gandalf: Sauron, baby! Can't do this to us, baby!
We're gonna drive you out, we're gonna drive you right out of here.
[More guitar solo, Gollum bites ring off Frodo's finger, trips and falls over the edge]
Gollum [ecstatic]: Nothing really matters, my precious is with me! Nothing really matters... nothing really matters, to me...
hobbits: Back to the Shire, we go...
When I was in high school I performed in a summer play of The Hobbit at a local park. I was Thorin Oakenshield, leader of the dwarves... it was a blast! It all took place outside, and we had sets built at various places in the park. Between scenes the audience would journey (walk) with us from place to place.
My friends in the crew built a 12 foot tall dragon with a wooden skeleton and paper-mache exterior. In the last scene the dragon reared up and I got to stab it in the belly, releasing several gallons of gloppy green blood. Man, that was fun!
The Lord of the G-Strings: The Femaleship of the String
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0323108/
brought to you by the same creative team that brought you Playmate of the Apes and Spiderbabe.
the main character, Dildo Saggins.
-- Does anybody know where the 'any' key is on the keyboard?
If you can believe that, there's actually two other versions of Bohemian Rhapsody vs. Lord of the Rings....
Here and here.