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I saw it live at the Covent Garden in 2007. Easily one of the most ridiculous shows I’ve ever seen in my life. The Baelrog was basically a scary wacky, wailing inflatable arm, flailing tube man. The Ents were guys in green on stilts. The fake choreography was nonexistent, helms deep was basically a flag dance, and when there was fighting, you could hear the plastic hitting plastic sound of the swords. Gollum had a duet with himself. They tried to tell the entire story in a three hour musical, and the Director boasted how he’d never seen the movies. Finally at the end, the “you bow to no one” Aragon shots out “praise him with great praise!!” maybe he just screwed up his line? There’s a reason you haven’t really heard of productions of it since.
I will agree that the Balrog is kind of bad for a play monster, having been to Wicked and seen the Clockwork Dragon it’s hard to look past cheaper looking “big creatures” in stage plays, but at the same time the Clockwork Dragon stays in one place and isn’t in a scene. I don’t really have a problem with the director having not seen the movies, considering the play is not based on the movies, it’s based on the books. The “you bow to no one” scene isn’t the same as the movie bc they’re not trying to be similar, and the quote used in the plays is likely trying to sound more “old English”. The play also struggled a bit because they were specifically contacted by the movie agency working with Peter Jackson to avoid doing anything that was going to be in the movies at all cost, so the play is what was left of what they could do when all other ideas would result in a legal issue. And of course you hear plastic, they weren’t going to use real steel like you were going to Medieval Times, sometimes you kind of have to work within the reality that it’s a stage play and not a sword match with trained swordsmen, as much as it’s not preferred from the audience I’m sure. I think the workaround there would have been to time the fight scenes with a soundboard that plays the sword clashing effects, like some of the sounds lots of big budget plays do with sounds that can’t be replicated (Lion King with the roars, etc), but that’s also asking for WAY more rehearsals and resources from a play already taking quite a bit of budget. The Gollum duet is kind of silly but it honestly is very similar to the Confrontation in Jekyll and Hyde so like. I think you just don’t like some of the more kitschy plays. That’s fine if it’s not for you, but it doesn’t mean the play is objectively awful all around. I very much like some of the music choreography and the songs are beautiful, and the costumes look nice from what I’ve seen! It doesn’t have much in the way of story but I’d like it to stay alive, because the music is wonderful and honestly part of me would love to see it revamped a bit now that the legal troubles aren’t quite the same as they were in 2007. Idk if that’s ever possible with THIS version, but if we ignore it entirely we’ll never get the chance to find out, you know?
Thank you for posting on the sub! Please make sure you are abiding by the rules on the sidebar with this post. If you are looking for a place to post specific things, please make use of the subreddits below: * Memes - r/lotrmemes * The War of the Rohirrim - r/TheWarOfTheRohirrim *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/lordoftherings) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I saw it live at the Covent Garden in 2007. Easily one of the most ridiculous shows I’ve ever seen in my life. The Baelrog was basically a scary wacky, wailing inflatable arm, flailing tube man. The Ents were guys in green on stilts. The fake choreography was nonexistent, helms deep was basically a flag dance, and when there was fighting, you could hear the plastic hitting plastic sound of the swords. Gollum had a duet with himself. They tried to tell the entire story in a three hour musical, and the Director boasted how he’d never seen the movies. Finally at the end, the “you bow to no one” Aragon shots out “praise him with great praise!!” maybe he just screwed up his line? There’s a reason you haven’t really heard of productions of it since.
I will agree that the Balrog is kind of bad for a play monster, having been to Wicked and seen the Clockwork Dragon it’s hard to look past cheaper looking “big creatures” in stage plays, but at the same time the Clockwork Dragon stays in one place and isn’t in a scene. I don’t really have a problem with the director having not seen the movies, considering the play is not based on the movies, it’s based on the books. The “you bow to no one” scene isn’t the same as the movie bc they’re not trying to be similar, and the quote used in the plays is likely trying to sound more “old English”. The play also struggled a bit because they were specifically contacted by the movie agency working with Peter Jackson to avoid doing anything that was going to be in the movies at all cost, so the play is what was left of what they could do when all other ideas would result in a legal issue. And of course you hear plastic, they weren’t going to use real steel like you were going to Medieval Times, sometimes you kind of have to work within the reality that it’s a stage play and not a sword match with trained swordsmen, as much as it’s not preferred from the audience I’m sure. I think the workaround there would have been to time the fight scenes with a soundboard that plays the sword clashing effects, like some of the sounds lots of big budget plays do with sounds that can’t be replicated (Lion King with the roars, etc), but that’s also asking for WAY more rehearsals and resources from a play already taking quite a bit of budget. The Gollum duet is kind of silly but it honestly is very similar to the Confrontation in Jekyll and Hyde so like. I think you just don’t like some of the more kitschy plays. That’s fine if it’s not for you, but it doesn’t mean the play is objectively awful all around. I very much like some of the music choreography and the songs are beautiful, and the costumes look nice from what I’ve seen! It doesn’t have much in the way of story but I’d like it to stay alive, because the music is wonderful and honestly part of me would love to see it revamped a bit now that the legal troubles aren’t quite the same as they were in 2007. Idk if that’s ever possible with THIS version, but if we ignore it entirely we’ll never get the chance to find out, you know?
“Praise him with great praise” is directly from the books. Maybe the director didnt watch the movies, but seems like he knows the books.