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The Rings of Power v. The Lord of the Rings Musical · Mythmakers

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  Hello and welcome to Mythmakers. Mythmakers is the podcast for fantasy fans and fantasy
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  creatives brought to you by the Oxford Centre for Fantasy. Now today I wanted to talk about
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  adaptations. In particular not film adaptations, but the Lord of the Rings musical versus
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  the Rings of Power. Now the Lord of the Rings musical was originally put on at the
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  Jury Lane Theatre in London which is one of the biggest theatres in the country and it
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  didn't run very well originally. It in fact was put up for 492 performances and ended
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  pretty much a year later having had a budget of £12.5 million. It's not quite as disastrous
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  as the famous or infamous Spider-Man musical but it's in that ballpark. Anyway it's been
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  quiet since but there's been a revival locally to where I live in Oxford down at the Water
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  Mill Theatre in Newbury which is a very interesting independent arts venue. As the name suggests
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  it's in a converted water mill, you know Sandy Man's mill has been turned to an artistic
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  purpose which is rather pleasant. Anyway they've put it on again and so sitting watching
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  it last night made me have a series of thoughts about adapting Tolkien's work which I thought
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  I would share with you and I'd also give a review of how the musical works. Before you go any
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  further I am going to say Booker Ticket and it's quite a small venue so if you are anywhere near
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  Newbury in the UK grab a ticket while they're still available I think it's got another month to run.
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  Anyway when I was thinking about the production I went back to have a look at what went wrong with
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  the jury lane version of the same thing and it seems as though it really did divide the critics.
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  So there was one critic who's a very well known critic in the UK called Michael Billington writing
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  in the Guardian saying I don't know how it could be done better if you're going to do Tolkien on
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  stage this is what he expects whereas Kiran Quirk in the evening standard said it was ill-fated
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  at conception tedious and vulgar in execution. There is someone who really didn't like it did he?
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  Anyway so digging further into the reviews to see if it was the same show that I saw. Here's
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  a longer comment on it so someone said the books and lyrics have no more depth than spam a lot
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  and at times such as the silliness one expects the nights who say knee that's a multi-pipe
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  and reference to make a guest appearance Philip Fisher was that critic and I think perhaps one of the
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  reviews that summed up feeling back in 2008 when it closed was this comment from another critic
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  the actors have been dwarfed in the process of making the show more gadgetrified is that a word
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  than any other before it. So clearly the overwhelming experience of watching that show was
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  great special effects not so sure about the acting and singing so I of course then went back and
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  you can do this too to look at the production photos and also look at a few of the videos that they
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  got of the cast singing. What struck me looking at that I know Jury Lane very well as a theatre
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  because I've written books set in Jury Lane it's one of my favourite places in the country
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  was they did use the stage to make a vast effect it looks as though it was pretty spectacular
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  they kept with the scale thing they were using people on stills they had looks like
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  all type warriors on sort of those bouncy blade things that you can do like parkour on
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  it looks as though they did an amazing job visually but Jury Lane old theatre but very big
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  does mean that you're looking at people from a great distance so you lack the intimacy of a
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  smaller venue like the watermelon theatre and that must have added to this feeling of the
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  actors being dwarfed and that critic isn't just referring to dwarves when he says that
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  okay this was put it to one side people thought it couldn't be can't succeed I've not
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  heard of it having a successful run anywhere else until the watermelon theatre took it up
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  now the actual adaptation was done by a man called Sean McKenna who is experienced in this field
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  and he is still involved in this process obviously the director at the watermelon theatre
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  and poor heart must have gone to him one assumes and said okay here's my venue I want to do this
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  how do we do it and they've changed the approach and it really really works and this is where you can
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  say small is in fact beautiful so the first thing to think of is if you can imagine in your mind
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  that this is being put on in Hobbiton this village on the edge of Newbury it's actually a place
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  called backner back end backner that's a match made in heaven isn't it the grounds are beautiful
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  so you go and have your pre theatre picnic or drinks in beautiful grounds and they actually
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  start the show outside so with the mill theatre behind and this beautiful garden and the show being
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  introduced by the Hobbits all the castoo all parts gives the impression or the sort of conceit
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  really that this would be how Lord of the Rings the story of Frodo and Sam how it would be if the
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  Hobbits were memorialising it afterwards and immediately as soon as you think like that all the
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  choices make sense I don't even know it's not in the programme notes I don't even know if this
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  is a conscious choice but it's the effect of what they've done so they start off outside
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  as you arrive with the Hobbits at Bilbo's party playing games involving the audience there's
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  quits there's splat the rat there's people dancing people playing music and just side by here
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  incredibly talented cast everybody plays an instrument during the course of the show except I think
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  perhaps Frodo and even Gollum is wonderful playing the guitar because he stays as Gollum doing
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  all his movement it's just brilliant anyway that's a bit later so you start outside and you're
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  already as an audience participating in the same way as if you remember the Peter Jackson film
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  everybody cheering somebody shouting out proud feet proud foot you know that that line it's all
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  enormous fun and it breaks down the barrier between you and the audience so you're on board for
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  the adventure and then soon after Bilbo leaves you moved inside into the theatre itself for the
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  majority of the rest of the evening it's quite a long run that three hours but boy do they rattle
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  through the material they do some really good choices so you might be wondering how do they put
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  this enormous three volume story into three hours well they do it by making radical cuts which
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  you have to do sure McKenna and the adaptor says the heart of the story is of course Frodo Sam Gollum
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  that triangle the story of Aragorn and the lands of men provides the narrative framework above
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  them all sits Gandalf Galadriel elves dwarves and the mystical mythology of the Valla
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  Pippin, Mary and their fellow hobbits give us warmth and humour anything beyond those four threads
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  was right for cutting a lighting or reimagining so that's the story line they've taken I would say
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  they've actually really concentrated on things relevant to the hobbits that seems to be the way
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  even more so than the the supporting characters of Aragorn and the elves and it's really strong
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  in the first half the first half is the fellowship of the ring book pretty much all the
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  top moments in that they've made an interesting choice for reasons of time I was wondering where
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  the cuts were going to come so the first meeting with Aragorn is conflated with the attack on
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  where the top it makes sense theatrically the way it's done the second half I think is less strong
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  they've got obviously the bigger canvas to fit they've got two books the strongest part of it is
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  as Sean McKenna says the Frodo Sam and Gollum triangle it's very very well done and it must be
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  horrible for anyone playing Gollum to come in after Andy Circus but he does very well very well
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  indeed I would say is an actor with the fantastic name of Matthew Bug which BU Double G which
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  seems perfect somehow for Gollum he's an expert on movement which he uses really well and he
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  does his own version of the two-sided voice without being a pastiche of Andy Circus so well done
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  Matthew Bug and the weak part of the second part is that for reasons of time they've had to
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  conflate Rohan and Gondor and this annoyed me when I was sitting there a bit why not annoyed me I
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  make I've I was thinking oh pick a side you know either do Gondor or Rohan don't kind of just
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  make it the City of Kings and conflate a Theodin with Denethore but actually once I was thinking
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  about it and reminded myself that the conceit that is that this is the Hobbits telling the story
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  I kind of thought I bet those Hobbits back in the Shire when Mary and Pippin were telling their
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  tales down the Ivy Bush or the Green Dragon they probably did say oh didn't they tell us about
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  some King who lost a son down in some City of Kings down there so it's almost like it's sort of
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  a story about the reception of the story in Hobbiton and once you do that you can relax about the
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  fact you haven't got your favorite characters from Rohan present there just isn't time we'd
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  still be sitting there if they wanted to be so complete and they're admirably swift about the end
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  as well but they do include an element of the scarring of the Shire because the story has
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  a environmental message which obviously is very allowed by the source material and as you leave
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  the handout seeds to go and plant so all of that is beautiful and beautifully done so the other
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  thing I haven't mentioned or looked at in detail is the fact that it's a musical so it works because
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  the performances are fantastic everybody is strong there isn't a weak link in the cast
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  I would say that the the standout character for me though was probably Frodo which is nice to
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  hear because normally Frodo I don't know because he is suffering so much at the end of his
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  story he sort of disappears a bit but this Frodo kept this sort of physical addiction
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  tension all the way through it's played by an actor called Louis Muscle
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  they also didn't bother about scale they don't have the resources of Drury Lane so they just
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  accepted that people were these you know different heights they did refer to it at certain times
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  by using staging to sort of emphasize heights but Frodo is quite tall Sam is beautifully short
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  he is a real hobbit it's and Rosie Sam and Rosie are just perfectly sure but I think it was the right
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  decision not to worry about that because it would have been too too much of a wait on the story to do
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  that plus also if we go with the conceit that this is a play played out by hobbits then of course
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  then with the same size so I like you know that's absolutely fine you aren't getting a film
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  you're not going there for that purpose that sort of very similitude that you get in the Peter Jackson
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  you're going for a theatrical interpretation of it and they're all very musical so you've got
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  people playing harps Boramir plays the trombone well done Boramir Gimli is great on the drums
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  you know there's all sorts of wonderful little moments you catch going on in the background
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  everybody plays them an instrument and so the numbers of the full chorus participation are really
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  really moving exciting so like the dance at the beginning and at the end the song in the
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  prancing pony is great fun because it's done as a sort of cool and response between the hobbits
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  and the brie landers and that captures the interaction between the two in music that's what
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  music should be doing it should be providing new information about relationships which is what
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  it does the elves have a sort of there's an element of eastern maybe indian sort of tones
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  I think we saw that actually in the Howard Shore score for lorian and maybe that gave the idea
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  or it was their own idea but they've sort of expanded that and their costumes reflect and
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  east and influence with the sort of long tunics and the drapes of fabric it's a really good
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  interpretation of the costumes actually and the best singers are Arwin and Galadriel Arwin
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  plays a harp how nice so that works well um the Galadriel is more hopperty than Elfi but she's
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  got a nice voice and she's staged impressively so again you just go with it the other
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  so looking at the music it definitely works in performance I'm struggling to remember any of it
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  now it doesn't have like a standout song like you might get in a I know a Lloyd Weber or something
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  a memory or whatever um maybe that's on purpose maybe it's because it's about a fellowship
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  and a group is actually seeing it live that matters and the other thing about it is I don't think
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  they were allowed to use Tolkien's actual words there was some Elvish in it which had been
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  translated into Elvish um but for the songs I think there must be copyright issues so they've had
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  to use uh an interpretation of things like the road goes ever on and on it doesn't give that
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  information in the program notes but I'm actually quite interested in what rights they were able to
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  get because um you could see another iteration of this where they are allowed to use the music
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  so the overall impression of the evening is one of huge fun huge inventiveness in what is a
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  small space I don't want to spoil some of the coup d'étatres in it but they do use very clever
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  not too complicated special effects to create magic um there's some good puppets shout out to
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  the she-log puppet and the black riders horses heads puppets simply done we all know now how wonderful
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  puppetry can be on stage thanks to Warhorse and um uh Lion King and things like that so they've got a
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  simple country-fied version of that absolutely great so I would say that between them
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  poor heart and Sean McKenna in the rest of the excellent team they have found a way of interpreting
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  this huge production which bombed or didn't do very well at jury lane um and actually made it a
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  production which I'm sure should go round lots of theaters around the world lots of regional
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  theaters it's well within the scope of local regional theaters to do festivals it's a cast of 20
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  what you need is good actors who can play instruments and who are good at movement uh and then you
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  don't actually need a huge vast theater with lots of CGI anything projected you can go back to
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  the stage magic that has been developed over the you know the 19th and 20th and 21st centuries
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  um and have a really magical evening and a particularly nice touch in this production is that
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  they take the theater outside take you outside the theater again so when they return to the
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  chart you return to the garden to an empty stage where you have the sense of the scoured
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  shire uh it's very very good very clever so well done um in terms of stars I give it overall
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  a kind of 4.5 of five stars something really quite high I would say the first half is definitely
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  five stars and the second half is sort of four stars that's why there's a little uh you know
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  quibble there and as I would say go and buy a ticket
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  okay so I'm talking here about adaptation so because what it made me feel afterwards I
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  went with my son and we were talking about rings of power which he's just finished watching he
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  was late to the party on that one we were talking about the contrast between doing talking
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  in this rural setting compared to the most expensive tv program made ever and it's absolutely
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  fascinating to see how small is good because you can't match what your imagination is doing even
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  in rings of power rings of power had moments where the backgrounds seem to work quite well like
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  numenor for example but that when it came to certain set pieces like saving the people in the southern
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  lands when numenor goes over to help the people there it came down to basically a village
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  and the geop and an effort run by elves it didn't really add up to a convincing land
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  also the lamada that they sent the fleet of ships it was very uninspiring too
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  so i'm sure it costs a huge amount to make but there wasn't enough power or ships to
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  match the grandeur of some of the other settings the other problem of course is that they
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  forgot totally about interpersonal relationships and having a key relationship in the middle of your
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  story can landry is strangely cool um we know she's queuing her brother and she's on a mission but
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  her actual personality is very dampened down there was a hint of a flirtation kind of same thing
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  her and the um i say how brand isn't it i think they call him the one who turns out to be the bad guy
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  she he was not really developed and when you look in the the law other options would have been
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  one of the versions of the story about Galadriel which never settles to a final version in Tolkien's work
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  is that kele brimbo actually loves her so rather than cast the older actor playing the smith you
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  could have had somebody who's actually doing it in order to impress or to woo Galadriel even
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  though she's married at the time to keleborn who is conveniently missing during the first season so
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  you could have actually had much more of a relationship spark between Galadriel and other characters
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  by looking at what goes on in Tolkien which they completely missed out and all the other sort of
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  sets of characters seem to be very isolated so the hobbits and the proto hobbits and the gandalf
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  figure are just completely off on their own they don't connect um Elrond and um doing they connect
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  with each other and that's with the strongest sort of storyline really but the connections to
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  other parts of the story are intermittent and not really very interesting um yeah so it just fails
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  really as a relate story about relationships a fellowship huh who who would have thought that was
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  a good idea whereas what they do in this small small scale production which won't have cost a
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  million pounds to put on um they've said okay at the centre of this is Frodo, Sam and Gollum
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  and Gollum mainly because he's the sort of he is he is the potential what Frodo is and that's
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  very clear and expressed in the way that's where it's staged but nothing as interesting as that
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  or as heart wrenching as that and the problem about the rings of power is it falls apart on the
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  fact that you lose interest in some of the stories so when the story goes back to that you think
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  hmm okay let's go make a cup of tea so I really hope and this comes down to the fact that the
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  problem is script it's not anything else it's you know I've had my crib walls with the costumes
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  and other aspects of it but the problem is script somebody needs to actually sit down and say
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  how do you make this a good story you've got this material you're stomping through it with as much
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  grace as an olive font sorry but that's what they did I mean just take for example the making of
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  the rings of power you've got a series called the rings of power they get made really rather quickly
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  at the end of the series and hand it out kind of here you go here there was no dramatic tension
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  about that no conflict really it just kind of happens really not a good idea so I'm hoping
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  they'll learn their lesson or they'll get some more experienced writers on board for the second
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  series so that they can salvage some of this because they've still got good material to come
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  but they need to remember to connect things together it's really basic this is what surprises me
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  that you can spend billions on this thing and forget the basics I don't know crazy anyway so
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  if you've got a choice between going out to theatre and watching Lord of the Rings the musical
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  or sitting down to watch rings of power I would definitely pick Lord of the Rings the musical
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  and it's very encouraging to see by taking a different approach to material that failed
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  the watermelon theatre's been able to make a success and I'm hoping that the people in charge
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  of the rings of power think you know what you've got some good things here go some good casting and
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  some good looks and all the rest of it let's have another go at this material and make it a success
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  thank you very much for listening
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