Varsha Anjalireviews the Lord of the Rings: A Musical Tale in Chicago ahead of its Auckland tour, revealing what Kiwis can expect from the latest Tolkien adaptation.
We weren’t just part of the show. We were part of the same journey, same tale, same world. Director Paul Hart’s brush of brilliance inLord of the Rings: A Musical Tale, which premiered in the US on July 19 and will come to Auckland in November, was that it happened before anyone noticed.
Hundreds of Tolkienists – some more committed than others with prosthetic elf ears – were still hobbling into The Yard at Chicago’s Shakespeare Theatre when a curly-haired, not-super-tall man in a waistcoat and breeches impishly invited a few nearby to a game of ring toss. Eyeing the colourful bunting on stage, it clicked. Nobody was there to see a musical. Everybody was there to celebrate Bilbo Baggins’ birthday.
Adapting JRR Tolkien’s famed 1950s epic fantasy tale of more than 1000 pages to a musical seems like a square-peg-in-a-round-hole situation. And it was in the past. The first musical iteration 18 years ago in Toronto was dubbed “an unmitigated disaster” by the Guardian. The second in London’s West End was one of its most expensive flops.
Frodo Baggins (Spencer Davis Milford).
In 2023 Hart proved that less is more. His significantly pared-down revival at the Watermill theatre in Berkshire, UK – a much smaller venue than previous iterations – was hailed “the greatest show on Middle-earth” by the Guardian’s Mark Lawson.
Now in the Windy City, Hart and his creative team kept much of the intimacy from Watermill – despite The Yard being a larger 850-seat venue. From the warmth felt from Anjali Mehra’s elegant choreography of the opening scene inspired by Middle Eastern, Indian and European social dancing to watching 24 actor-musicians sing and play instruments on stage (remarkably without a conductor) – it was like being among friends when visiting the place you grew up in. It felt familiar.
Tolkien purists may snigger at how much from the original books was left out. They should, respectfully, get over it. Though the author himself was sceptical of adapting fantasy tales for the stage, this production team would have made Tolkien blush. In just under three hours, we saw everything from gigantic arachnids to visceral dance battles – highlights from the book were retained without causing plot chaos. In saying that, Act I went on longer than it should have, and the show is more for the day ones. Without prior knowledge of the story, it would be hard to follow.
Frodo (Spencer Davis Milford) with Gandalf (Tom Amandes).
Simon Kenny’s stripped-back set design and Charlie Tymms’ incredibly cool puppetry design allowed the audience to sink into suspended disbelief and easily navigate the fantasy world. There wasn’t too much on stage to distract the eye – a turntable in the middle, some ladders and lifts. The battle-worn colours on the Black Rider puppets were a menacing touch. And when the Shelob puppet appeared I felt the thrill of fear. You could believe they were alive.
The cast kicked ass. Tony Bozzuto’s Gollum was brilliant and stole the show. Crawling, rope swinging to ladder climbing – it was perhaps the most physically demanding role in the entire production. Bozzuto’s approach was a clear nod to Andy Serkis’ interpretation of the character in Peter Jackson’s films – and it worked. There could have been no better Gandalf than Tom Amandes, who brought the warmth and softness required. The onstage chemistry between Frodo (Spencer Davis Milford) and Samwise Gamgee (Michael Kurowski) was palpable and charming.
From left: Pippin (Ben Mathew), Samwise Gamgee (Michael Kurowski), Merry (Eileen Doan) and Frodo (Spencer Davis Milford).
The music was mind-blowing. An exotic blend of Indian, Finnish and British origins composed by the legendary AR Rahman, Värttinä and Chris Nightingale, the 19 songs were modern, nostalgic and very visceral. Mark Aspinall’s orchestrations of it all beautifully tied the different fantasy worlds into a cohesive knot, helping to make the unreal real.
And they proved to be hard to forget. Lyrics by Shaun McKenna and Matthew Marchus for the song Now and for Always, an emotional tune portraying Frodo and Sam’s deep friendship, was still stuck in my head immediately after the show – then sporadically again and again as the days passed.
As Federica Drotos, director of brand and licensing for Middle-earth Enterprises told me: “I always think that you can walk away and hum it – even if it haunts you in a good way, it’s got you.”
