Lord of the Rings: The Musical! (for real)

Cafe Society
1

This story outlines plans to bring the entire trilogy to the London stage in a three and a half hour production. Rather ambitious, to say the least. I have a sense this could lead to an epic adventure in bad taste, but then I’m one of those uncultured philistines who cannot abide musicals.

A bit suprised the Tolkien guardians gave this the go-ahead, thought they might be concerned about over exposure and potential backlash at this point.

Trying to imagine Frodo of the Nine Fingers live, I believe I would be in my seat looking like MacDowell in Clockwork Orange.

2

Eh, it’s been done.

3

And I think Mad Magazine did it once too.

All I remember was a song about how easy it is to kill orcs.

4

Please god, nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

mups

5

[Humming the “Dennis Moore Theme”]

Aragorn, Aragorn, riding through Fangorn,
Aragorn, Aragorn, never quite forelorn,
He killed fifty orcs,
and then fifty more,
Aragorn, Aragorn,
Aragorn!

6

We may be laughing now, but it seems that some stories in a new medium displace much of the popularity of the original version. I mean, Les Miserables the musical has pretty much pushed Les Miserables the novel from the top of the Les Mis food chain, no?

Maybe 50 years from now, the name “Lord of the Rings” will be best known for Gandalf’s rousing duet with the Balrog :wink:

7

Oh thanks – now I’ll be singing this ALL DAY!!!

8

I’ll reprise here my contribution from a similar thread last year:

Four little men from the Shire are we
Fat as a hobbit well can be
Filled to the brim with beer from Bree
Four little men from the Shire!

Four little men who, all unwary
Stray into forests dark and scary
Hiding from all the Ring we carry
Four little men from the Shire!

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Saul Zaentz licenses many of the rights and has not demonstrated much concern for the integrity of the work. (Video games? Tarot cards? Ralph Bakshi?) I suspect Christopher Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien’s son and literary executor, is displeased by the idea of a stage musical but has no say over the matter.

Mightily displeased.

I’m not thrilled about the idea, but I won’t pass final judgment without hearing a single note of the score. It’s certainly not going to use any of the songs from the animated TV program. A few years ago, I thought the movies would be big piles of stinky cheese but I went to the first one anyway in hopes that I would be wrong. I was.

http://www.thelordoftheringsmusical.com/

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Everybody all together now:

“Where there’s a whip, there’s a way.”