Lord of the Rings Musical Review
31 Jul, 2023
(edited)
2023-7-31 5:56:02 PM UTC
2023-7-31 5:56:02 PM UTC
So last week, 27/7/2023, I went to see the latest production of the Lord of Rings Musical at the Watermill Theatre near Newbury in England, in its preview week, and I must say I really enjoyed it.
A quick warning, there are some minor spoilers in this review.
The theatre is in a lovely rural area in the small village of Bagnor, near Newbury. The Theatre itself is very picturesque being based on the side of a river. There is a lovely picnic area which has some snack type food which was very tasty, and there is a lovely restaurant, which is doing a Lord of the Rings musical/meal package, although you should really book in advance. There is also a bar for drinks. All the staff were very friendly and helpful. Dotted around the theatre and grounds are various Lord of the Rings items, a large photo op ring in the picnic area, a nice party sign pointing the way to the outside stage and various posters and signs etc.
The show started outside on a round stage with Bilbo’s Birthday party and the audience were included as the party goers, sitting on picnic tables and benches, with some bright awnings giving a real party feel. Before the play started proper, member of the cast interacted with the crowd as hobbit party goers, which was fun.
After the party and Bilbo’s vanishing the performance moved inside to the main theatre for the majority of the rest of the show. The theatre itself is quite small which I found gave a lot more intimacy with the performance, with the actors often moving around, between and behind the audience, there was also a lot of climbing done to the different levels which added an additional dimension. The smaller stage was used very effectively with minimal but well used scenery. There were some excellent nice interpretation of some of the harder scenes/affects, specifically the Balrog, the Black Riders (quite scary) and the Mount Doom scene. Shelob was also excellent.
At the end we went outside again for the finale, for Sam and Rosie’s wedding and the departure from the Grey Havens. I must admit this final movement outside by the audience was a bit chaotic. But the it was eventually a nice ending.
We were very lucky and the weather was a lovely sunny evening, if the weather is poor then the outdoor sections would be done indoors.
The show is long, three and a half hours, including a twenty minute interval. Because of this the story had to be truncated quite a bit. As well as the normal cuts, Bombadil (he did get a mention though), Barrowdowns etc, there were some quite surprising changes. Weathertop was combined into Bree! There was no Rohirim at all, so no Theoden (his character was merged with Denathor), Eomer or Eowyn (and no Witch King encounter), and no Helms Deep. There was no paths of the dead and army of the dead. There were no flying Nazgul. And there was no Faramir.
I would say that I thought the first half was better than the second half. The pace of the second half is a bit all over the place with some additional songs for Arwen and Galadriel which I would have liked replaced with the Rohirim, Helms Deep and Eowyn vs Which King (although I concede that this might have made it longer still).
The biggest plus of the whole show is the actors, they were really excellent and very professional. Being a smaller production, I was expecting it to be a bit amateurish, however it was just the opposite, each actor was really talented, with most of them playing a wide variety of instruments including a harp, an accordion, trumpet, French horn, harmonica etc for the musical accompaniment at the same time as playing the various characters. Some of my favourite performances were Gollum (Mathew Bugg), Sam (Nuwan Hugh Perera) and Pippin (Amelia Gabriel).
The characters had some obvious influences from the Jackson movies. Merry and Pippin were more comical, expanded parts for Arwen, a Surkis style Gollum. On top of this there was an expanded role for Galadriel.
The songs are good, very Tolkien based with some folky based ones from the shire to some strong ones by Galadriel, quite a good mix.
So, as to the big question, how faithful to Tolkien is it? I think, given the time constraints, the size of the production and that it was a musical (so had to cram in quite a few songs), that they did an excellent job and it did Tolkien justice. In fact I liked it more than the London version, I think the smaller scale made it more intimate and engrossing (although I did also like the London version which was very spectacular). The missing scenes did annoy a bit and so did some of the rehashed ‘movie’ changes, but I was happy to put those aside (although some of the real purists might not be happy). Surprisingly my 14 year old daughter really enjoyed it, a lot more than the movies, and now wants to read the books (having shown no interest before), so yet another avenue by which new people find Tolkien.
I would encourage anyone who has the opportunity to go and see it.
Finally, there were not many collectables available. There is a program, also a flyer, and you could get a wicker ring (which was a bit of a theme for the production, with a large version in the gardens and also being used to navigate the audience to their seats, with a colour coded hand stamp) they also gave out some “rebuild the Shire” packets of seeds at the end, which was a nice touch. When I queried they said there might be some posters and a cd of the music would be good.
A quick warning, there are some minor spoilers in this review.
The theatre is in a lovely rural area in the small village of Bagnor, near Newbury. The Theatre itself is very picturesque being based on the side of a river. There is a lovely picnic area which has some snack type food which was very tasty, and there is a lovely restaurant, which is doing a Lord of the Rings musical/meal package, although you should really book in advance. There is also a bar for drinks. All the staff were very friendly and helpful. Dotted around the theatre and grounds are various Lord of the Rings items, a large photo op ring in the picnic area, a nice party sign pointing the way to the outside stage and various posters and signs etc.
The show started outside on a round stage with Bilbo’s Birthday party and the audience were included as the party goers, sitting on picnic tables and benches, with some bright awnings giving a real party feel. Before the play started proper, member of the cast interacted with the crowd as hobbit party goers, which was fun.
After the party and Bilbo’s vanishing the performance moved inside to the main theatre for the majority of the rest of the show. The theatre itself is quite small which I found gave a lot more intimacy with the performance, with the actors often moving around, between and behind the audience, there was also a lot of climbing done to the different levels which added an additional dimension. The smaller stage was used very effectively with minimal but well used scenery. There were some excellent nice interpretation of some of the harder scenes/affects, specifically the Balrog, the Black Riders (quite scary) and the Mount Doom scene. Shelob was also excellent.
At the end we went outside again for the finale, for Sam and Rosie’s wedding and the departure from the Grey Havens. I must admit this final movement outside by the audience was a bit chaotic. But the it was eventually a nice ending.
We were very lucky and the weather was a lovely sunny evening, if the weather is poor then the outdoor sections would be done indoors.
The show is long, three and a half hours, including a twenty minute interval. Because of this the story had to be truncated quite a bit. As well as the normal cuts, Bombadil (he did get a mention though), Barrowdowns etc, there were some quite surprising changes. Weathertop was combined into Bree! There was no Rohirim at all, so no Theoden (his character was merged with Denathor), Eomer or Eowyn (and no Witch King encounter), and no Helms Deep. There was no paths of the dead and army of the dead. There were no flying Nazgul. And there was no Faramir.
I would say that I thought the first half was better than the second half. The pace of the second half is a bit all over the place with some additional songs for Arwen and Galadriel which I would have liked replaced with the Rohirim, Helms Deep and Eowyn vs Which King (although I concede that this might have made it longer still).
The biggest plus of the whole show is the actors, they were really excellent and very professional. Being a smaller production, I was expecting it to be a bit amateurish, however it was just the opposite, each actor was really talented, with most of them playing a wide variety of instruments including a harp, an accordion, trumpet, French horn, harmonica etc for the musical accompaniment at the same time as playing the various characters. Some of my favourite performances were Gollum (Mathew Bugg), Sam (Nuwan Hugh Perera) and Pippin (Amelia Gabriel).
The characters had some obvious influences from the Jackson movies. Merry and Pippin were more comical, expanded parts for Arwen, a Surkis style Gollum. On top of this there was an expanded role for Galadriel.
The songs are good, very Tolkien based with some folky based ones from the shire to some strong ones by Galadriel, quite a good mix.
So, as to the big question, how faithful to Tolkien is it? I think, given the time constraints, the size of the production and that it was a musical (so had to cram in quite a few songs), that they did an excellent job and it did Tolkien justice. In fact I liked it more than the London version, I think the smaller scale made it more intimate and engrossing (although I did also like the London version which was very spectacular). The missing scenes did annoy a bit and so did some of the rehashed ‘movie’ changes, but I was happy to put those aside (although some of the real purists might not be happy). Surprisingly my 14 year old daughter really enjoyed it, a lot more than the movies, and now wants to read the books (having shown no interest before), so yet another avenue by which new people find Tolkien.
I would encourage anyone who has the opportunity to go and see it.
Finally, there were not many collectables available. There is a program, also a flyer, and you could get a wicker ring (which was a bit of a theme for the production, with a large version in the gardens and also being used to navigate the audience to their seats, with a colour coded hand stamp) they also gave out some “rebuild the Shire” packets of seeds at the end, which was a nice touch. When I queried they said there might be some posters and a cd of the music would be good.
12