The blockbuster -- or at least budget-busting -- Lord of the Rings musical hit the boards this week, way off Broadway, way off the West End... in Toronto. Critics have been about as kind as, oh, Sauron. Charles McNulty in the L.A. Times:
Had there been no film, the audience would no doubt have found it perplexing in the extreme. Of course, had there been no book, it would have seemed borderline insane to have sunk so many millions into what seems here like a crackpot chronicle.
Whoops.
Charles Spencer in the British Telegraph:
If you find a line like "As a hobbit might say, may the hair on your toes never fall out" deliciously rib-tickling then this is undoubtedly the show for you. If, like me, you find it insufferably twee, then you are going to find the show a penance
C’mon, that line turns even my stomach, and I’m a pervy hobbit fancier.
Most of the reviews state what should be obvious: that the fanboys will come out in droves and make this a hit. Then again:
Ming writes: I attended the LOTR stage show in Toronto this afternoon, and I regret to say that the Helm's Deep scene is still error-prone. During the performance I attended, Saruman's orcs were scaling the walls of Helm's Deep when, abruptly, they all left the stage (was there some kind of signal, I wonder?) and the raised platforms on the stage descended. I sat for a moment in bewilderness (though I had a very bad feeling about it, pardon the other-movie reference) before the voice of God announced that they were experiencing some "technical difficulties" and that we should remain seated. That announcement was repeated twice before the voice of God decided to have an "unscheduled intermission".
[from TheOneRing.net]
Double whoops. Then again, Ming had already shelled out his dough, and wasn’t gonna get it back:
I asked to speak to the house manager, from whom I requested a free pass to see another performance of the second act. Unfortunately, he said he didn't have the authority to grant such a request, and gave me TicketKing's customer service e-mail address. I will be going back to New York on Saturday morning so if I don't receive a favorable response by Friday, they're going to have one very disgruntled hobbit.
Sounds like they’ve already got one.
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