Timewaster's Guide Archive
General => Everything Else => Topic started by: Lieutenant Kije on March 15, 2005, 01:49:41 PM
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A small part of me feared this might actually happen:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/03/15/britain.lordofrings.ap/index.html
**Kije shudders
Perhaps it's just the Tolkien devotee in me, but some things just don't mix well, and I think this is a prime example.
I suppose it could be pretty hilarious, though.
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I wonder if it will run in conjunction with Spamalot.
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You know...I'm not too familiar with musicals or Opera but from what I know, the story in LOTR is epic enough and tragic enough and exciting enough to adapt well.
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As long as they stay away from the line-dance, pop scene that is.
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A musical in the hands of a really good writing team could do great things with LotR, but the realist in me says that this is probably not the case here. They're doing the show to cash in on a craze, not because they're devoted to the material, and it will probably be a shallow pop spectacle. Of course, Peter Jackson surprised us all, and maybe these guys will too.
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Well, I'm near Toronto so if the ticket price isn't too bad I may go see it. Otherwise I'll just download someone's backup copy from the satellites that hover over Buffalo... yeah.
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I'm thinking an opera would be a much more appropriate medium for the story.
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I've been to a few opera's and having a shallow, superficial plot is almost a requirement. LotR seems to have way to much depth, so I don't see why it needs all that filler music stuff.
I just see this a extrenuous merchandising.
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feh. Not a requirement. I never said all operas were deep, I meant they were dignified, and musicals... are not as dignified.
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Some can be, though. You just need better people to make them.
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I don't think you could do a musical to cover the entire trilogy. You'd have to do a trilogy of musicals. And I don't think the medium of musical theater would handle the split plotlines as well as books or film have.
And if you cut out half the story and focused on only one plotline (which would have to be Frodo and Sam) it would be missing too much. In the end, I think any attempt will be oversimplified. Peter Jackson had a hard enough time cramming it all into film, and he didn't have to break for singing hobbits.
And the thought of singing orcs...ugh. My prediction is that this is going to flop in theaters and become convention fodder.
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We don't want to go to war today!
Chorus:
Where there's a whip, *snap
There's a way!
. . . I forget the rest.
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We don't wanna go to war TODAY!
But the dark lord says "nay, nay nay!"
We gotta march all day, all day, all day!
Where there's a whip there's a way.
I always liked that song...
Anyway LOTR the book has plenty of songs. Hobbit's got a lot, too...
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and jackson didn't break for them, partially for time reasons. I think theres what, 4 songs in the whole 8 hour trilogy? A musical that does not make.
-Aragorn's song about the elf princess
-The elves singing in Lothlorien (more background music)
-The Green Dragon song (by Pippin and Merry)
-Home is Ahead (or whatever it was called that Pip sings at Gondor).
Yeah, 3 or 4, depending on how you count. I'm not willing to sit through an 8 hour musical, which would compress the plot even more (of course, you could cut down the battle sequences and get rid of a couple hours there). Even if they did use just Tolkien's songs, you're stretching that out or cutting too much.
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On a slightly more comedic note:
Star Wars: The Musical Edition (http://www.starwars.com/community/news/2005/03/news20050304.html)
I had a chance to see this at MIT and it was hilarious (as intended). Obi's hut had a Moulin Rouge poster :D
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I saw a stage version of The Hobbit when I was around 8 (I think), which was right after I finished the trilogy and the prelude for the first time on my own. I thought it was really good; of course, I was like eight, and it was done by a high school, so it probably wasn't as spectacular as I "remember." But I think if a high school can entertain an eight-year old with a related storyline, a groups of professionals could entertain adults. Though time would be a problem--a lot of people will be angry at what gets cut if they try to shorten it too much, but they will be angry at how long it was if they don't...
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I think The Hobbit is sufficiently different enough to make comparing the potential musicals from it and LOTR invalid. For example, LOTR has at least three distinct yet essential plotlines for the bulk of the story while Hobbit had only one, ever. (minor exception is when Bilbo is separated from the dwarves by the spiders but that's minor like I said)