Lord of the Rings - Drury Lane Theatre - review

An interesting one this, and one that’s sure to divide an audience. So to start with, almost as a summary, let’s get a bit analytical. There are a number of combinations of people who will or won’t like this musical. You have people who:

• Read the books - will hate it
• Seen the films - will be a bit bemused, but will have a good time of it
• Read the books and seen the films - will totally hate it
• Neither - will think it’s fantastic

I could end the review there really, but let’s get a bit more detailed.

For the record, I’ve seen the films, but not read the books. I was suspicious of this show; I couldn’t understand how they could possibly get nine hours of celluloid down to three hours including two intervals.

I’d like to tell you a bit about the Drury Lane Theatre, but frankly, it’s a bit non-descript, a bit tatty, and could really do with a serious overhaul. Lord Webber, pull your finger out.

We were down in the stalls, pretty good seats, perhaps a bit over to the right, but perfectly alright really. The stage was massively designed, as you might expect, with a forest overgrowing the edges of the stage and into the auditorium, taking over the royal boxes, and also the fire exits a little (hmm…).

There was a delightful preshow, with hobbits coming on stage and running around the auditorium, trying to catch fireflies. Lots of jumping over audience members (what kind of insurance do you need for that!), clamouring about, and generally being pretty entertaining really.

A bang of fireworks, and we were off into the first number, and suddenly I’d worked out what they’d done. Everyone got a musical style. Hobbits got, perhaps a bit stereotypical, diddly-dee Irish folk music. Of course they did. Don’t get me wrong, though, quality stuff. It’s just the juxtaposition of backwards little country folk, and Irish folk music I thought was a little patronising perhaps. Never mind… Elves had Arabic, almost Indian music (composed by A.R.Rahman, off of Bombay Dreams), and everyone else recieved their own style, courtesy either of Mr. Rahman, or Värttinä, a rather pleasing Finnish folk/electronica band.

And we just ploughed through the first film. This was cut, that was cut, we were in Rivendell in about half an hour, and the first interval was (excuse my lack of terminology) where Gandalf plummets fighting the big fiery monster from the mines (nicely described, Mat, well done!)

But my initial scepticism did disappear. It is a stunning piece in its own right. Lothlorien, with the silks and the Arabic stylings, was superb, and Laura Michelle Kelly successfully got rid of Mary Poppins to become Galadriel.

Orcs came rushing on with power stilts or crutches (wierd, but it worked), we had Treebeard on a massive pair of stilts, it was a spectacle.

As an example, check this out:

Now, the show opened in Toronto, and Cirque du Soleil is Canadian, and the above clip looks suspiciously CdS, especially with the music. Was there some influence there? Quite possibly. But you see what I mean? A combination of triple-time folk music, Arabic stylings, a hint of Scandinavia, and a great wodge of CdS spectacle.  Here’s the Toronto trailer:

So, in summary, a purist would find it a travesty of Tolkein’s work, but as a piece in it’s own right, it is really very good indeed. A bit of stereotyping perhaps with the music, but fast-paced and energetic, with some excellent centrepieces. When the soundtrack finally comes out, I’ll be getting a copy.

~ by Mat on Saturday, 13th October, 2007.