The tale of Frodo, the fellowship and the magic ring is one of the most beloved and epic stories of all time, and it has been brought to life in great fashion at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury.
This production of Lord of the Rings is an adaptation of the musical which played in London in the West End in 2007. A huge an elaborate show, the London show didn’t play that long as it attempted expensive and epic as the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. It was a real shame that it closed after a short while as there are so many fans of the stories that will have never got to see the story play out on stage and enjoy the songs.
It’s been a few years since the Lord of the Rings Musical closed on the West End, and although that production didn’t run very long, it was one I enjoyed back in the day. As such, I was very pleased to hear that a new production of the adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s epic trilogy was being produced.
Taking place at the unique venue of the Water Mill Theatre in Newbury, the whole evening quite an experience. The show both starts and ends outside in a somewhat immersive experience, with the bulk of the show happening inside in a traditional theatre setting.
When we arrived, the theatre, which we’d never been to before had signs up about Bilbo Baggin’s birthday party, and people were there early posing for photos in a big ring in the gardens whilst weird duck turkey vulture things milled around by your feet.
When it was time for the show to begin we then went and sat in an outside area around a raised stage. It didn’t take long before Hobbits started arriving and setting up to play songs and dance around. There was a degree of audience interaction here, but felt it could have been better.
The first Hobbit to stage noted that there was just two of them there and that the show hadn’t started yet. This got a laugh, but for what is meant to be an immersive experience I thought it was a poor choice to break the reality of the scenario instantly like this. Another got me up on stage to try a ring toss game and fittingly I managed to score ‘one ring’.
The show began properly with Bilbo’s birthday party and whilst this was cool, I’m not sure that the outdoor setting made for a better experience than if it had been entirely on the stage. I’ll compare this production with my memories of the West End show shortly, but as one example straight off the bat of where this lacked was that Bilbo is supposed to disappear by using the one ring. On the West End show they used some clever projection or screen to make it look like he actually vanished, so the puff of smoke here was ok, but set the tone for a less technically impressive show.
Once we were in the theatre things carried on in a more traditional sense, and business picked up. I was truly impressed with what they achieved on what is a limited sized stage, and scaled back special effects. This version had a rotating stage, creative use of projection, an impression lighting design and some cool use of puppetry. The biggest advantage and unique selling point this show has over the West End original is that the cast play all of the music live and there are usually a bunch of characters with violins, guitars, drums or harps littered across the stage.
This aspect was very impressive and showed off the talent of the cast. Being a show where the cast play the music live works well with Lord of the Rings as the cast of characters do seem like the kinds of people who may carry of string instrument or flute with them.
Of course, the West End show was much more of a spectacle with a huge stage that moved and raised a lot more than what they could achieve here. The West End show also had performers on huge stilts to play the walking talking tree characters, the Ents, and the incredible sight at the start of the second act where Gollum climbs down the side of the arch of the stage like Spider-Man.
But this show clearly is designed for. Smaller space and a smaller budget. The original had failed partly due to its expense, so redeveloping the show as it has been here almost certainly makes it more viable.
I can say I really enjoyed this production, as I did the West End original, but neither version was perfect. The show is an adaption of the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, which means it’s a pretty long show. When you consider the movie trilogy clocks in at twelve hours long, for them to turn all three books into a three and a half hour stage show with songs is impressive.
This being said, there are parts of the show which I felt could have been cut to make it a slicker and more enjoyable show. In particular I felt like half the songs could be cut and it would be a bonus. My honest opinion of the songs is that having seen the show twice now I can barely remember what any of the songs were. They were well sung, and sounded fitting of the characters, but mostly I didn’t feel any of them were essential to develop or tell the story.
The action sequences were few in the first act and more in the second, but they were generally impressive and well staged.
One issue with the adaptation is that many characters felt underdeveloped. I feel like when this was originally written they were banking on people knowing the movies and that you’d just fill in some blanks in your minds eye. Gimli and Legolas don’t have much to do, and Saruman and the orks are scarcely featured. The orks in the show are presented in a stylised way. The performers playing them are basically wearing hoodies and gas masks and whilst they most certainly don’t fit the visual style of the rest of the show, they still somehow fulfilled their purpose without seeming too out of place.
My views of the performers are generally mixed. I got into their version of Frodo and Sam more as the show went on, but Frodo seemed tired and mournful from the start instead of the curious and positive character I know him to be. Sam was fun, but his undying commitment to Frodo and sense of caring took a while to warm up in my eyes.
Merry was just kinda there for a lot of it, and Pippin was played by a female performer in this version, but I thought was the most expressive and likeable of the four Hobbit leads. Gimli and Legolas were also barely in the show all considered.
I do remember from castings of the West End show that actors playing the Hobbit roles had to be a maximum of 5’5” tall so it was strange to see that other than Sam, all of the Hobbits were taller than Aragorn.
The guy who played Bilbo did a good job for the limited role, and also came back to play Boromir’s father in a version of the role that is a departure from the books and films.
Gandalf also did a good job, but just missed the mark for the level of gravitas to completely nail the role. Elrond was doubled with Saruman and I felt Elrond worked better than the evil white wizard who lacked a lot of creepy menace.
I was very impressed with the physicality of Gollum, and the performer playing him even managed a voice which was familiar enough to Andy Serkis’s version, but had enough of a unique take on the character so it wasn’t just an impression.
I’m aware that I’ve nitpicked a bunch of the negatives I found with the show, but overall I thought it was very impressively produced.
In what will seem like a weird backhanded compliment, the show felt like the best amateur show of all time, with it clearly being a scaled back production to what the epic nature of Lord of the Rings, and that the opening and ending scenes being outside didn’t quite click. They were fun, but didn’t make it a better show as I don’t think they used their environment to greater effect than what could be achieved on stage.
I’m a big fan of the Lord of the Rings story, and even a half decent job would have been enjoyable for me here, but as it is they did a great job. I only give it four stars as I felt a few of the performances were a tad below my expectations for certain characters, and I feel the script and songs included could be tidied up to make for a perfect adaptation.
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