The Lord of the Rings musical is playing in Toronto right now, and it's not doing so well. The New York Times called it "a murky, labyrinthine wood from which no one emerges with head unmuddled, eyes unblurred or eardrums unrattled," while a Toronto critic simply said "bored of the Rings." I applaud the notion of a musical with new music - sometimes a novel concept in this world of Mamma Mia!, Movin' Out, and Footloose - but this seems like a bad idea all around. For one thing, the LOTR trilogy is LONG. How can you turn it into a musical without leaving out some crucial components? Second, there aren't enough love interests. Musicals need love to power them along, and to create a catalyst for the ballads. Finally, on some level, musicals need to be flashy, and while I'd be willing to bet that the sets for this are amazing, the potentially all-brown and cream palette of the costumes would be enough by itself to make me fall asleep while watching.
I'll stick with the movies.
Lord of the Rings - the musical - D+
5 comments:
Oh stop it. Didn't we get enough of that with "Brokeback Mountain"? You positively sound Republican...seeing gay everywhere.
i agree with all you tell amanda my love...ecspecially the color scheme. Like...um...Les Miserables...everything is all grey and black, except the whores of course and I totally fell asleep until the gun shots went off.
Dusty....the whores are the best part.
The upshot of this that there are pleny of teeny tiny guys in the musical theater world... but where do you find someone strapping enough to look like an entirely different (and larger) species? Andre the Giant died and Robbie Benson only looks big when you put a Big Head on him... and don't get me started on Big Heads!
Ooh, I was just in DC and saw stuff about Hot Feet, with is all done with Earth Wind & Fire music. Sounds good!
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