Singing Hobbits, Wizards and Orcs, Oh My!
It all started with a simple statement scribbled across a blank
page of an examination answer-book: "In a hole in the ground
there lived a hobbit." Sixty some-odd years and several volumes
later, Middle Earth is one of the most well-known and beloved
fantasy worlds.
Last year, 2005, marked the 50th anniversary of the complete
publication of J.R.R. Tolkien's masterpiece. The Lord of the
Rings, a multi-volume epic that followed The Hobbit,
was first published in London in 1954, with an American edition
following in 1955. This tale of unlikely heroes has been made
into a radio play (the BBC's Third Programme aired it in 1956);
an animated film (1978); a trilogy of live-action films (2001,
2002, 2003); several video games (1985, 1990, 1992, 2000, 2002,
2003, 2004) with more being planned; and now is being made into
an ambitious live-theatre musical production.
"The responsibility is huge," says Mathew Warchus, the man
chosen to direct the stage version of The Lord of the
Rings, "but the opportunity is huge as well, because you can
do some things you always dreamed of doing on the stage."
Lord of the Rings opened at the Princess of Wales Theatre
in Toronto in February 2006, cost about $27 million (Canadian)
to produce and faced many challenges.
"People feel so strongly about Tolkien's work," Warchus says. "I
studied the books very carefully. I vowed I would not trivialize
the piece in any way, but honor it and perhaps even add
something to all the available incarnations of the story."
With so many adaptations of the work on hand, why would someone
tackle a stage production? "To read the novel is to experience
the events of Middle Earth in the mind's eye; to watch the films
is to view Middle Earth as though through a giant window. Only
in the theatre are you actually plunged into the events as they
happen," says Warchus. "The environment surrounds us. We
participate. We are in Middle Earth."
Fans who have seen the preview agree. One said, "It was unlike
reading or watching Middle Earth, it was like being there!"
The biggest question, however, was why a musical? Do we really
want Frodo to sing, orcs to dance? "We have not attempted to
pull the novel towards the standard conventions of musical
theatre," says Warchus, "but rather to expand those conventions
so that they will accommodate Tolkien's material."
There is "music virtually the whole way through," says Kevin
Wallace, producer of the show, "Like in the books, the
characters in the stage adaptation use songs that are already
part of their culture to express themselves. They do not sing as
in a traditional musical, ... but as in a culture with a strong
singing tradition, they use music as part of their everyday
life."
The music is a collaborative composition of A.R. Rahman, a
composer from India, V