*4 STARs out of 5* (******) given for this show.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/theatre/article1957609.ece
Cheers,
Siraj
On 6/20/07, Siraj K <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
See this is other kind of review.. Meaningful review; he really spent
sometime to enjoy the show & music and then he wrote this review.....
*Excerpts:*
"But there's more here than spectacle. The music, by the Indian composer
A.R. Rahman and the Finnish folk group Värttinä with Christopher
Nightingale, airy and earthy by turns, carries and intensifies the story's
swell of feeling. "
- Siraj
On 6/20/07, Gopal Srinivasan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> It's finally here – the year's most anticipated theatrical opening,
> costing £12.5 million and heralded by high hopes on one hand and prophecies
> of doom on the other. When I saw Matthew Warchus's production in Toronto
> last year, I was dazzled and delighted by its ingenuity and visual
> invention. I was also frustrated by its slower, muddier passages,
> unimpressed by some key performances and deeply disappointed by its bungled
> climax.
>
> Happily, almost everything that was wrong has been put right. Some will
> prefer the slick grandiosity of Peter Jackson's films; others will sneer at
> the very idea of singing hobbits. It's their loss. Warchus and his team have
> a created a brave, stirring, epic piece of popular theatre that, without
> slavishly adhering to J.R.R. Tolkien's novels, embraces their spirit.
> The show has charm, wit, and jaw-dropping theatrical brio; crucially, it
> also has real emotional heft.
>
> Warchus's and Shaun McKenna's book has been streamlined, but at more
> than three hours the show is still long – yet it doesn't outstay its
> welcome. Rob Howell's stunning tree-roots design stretches out into the
> auditorium, and performers, too, spill from the stage, creating a
> fantastical environment that draws you in and grips you from beginning to
> end. Hobbits chase fireflies along the aisles; screeching, leather-clad orcs
> not only leap and somersault, on springed shoes, across the stage's multiple
> revolving levels, but, startlingly, loom over unwary spectators. Frodo puts
> on the ring and vanishes before your eyes. Huge black riders and a hideously
> hairy giant spider, conjured through adroit puppetry and brilliantly lit by
> Paul Pyant, become creatures of genuine terror.
> Related Links
>
> - Will the rings win over the paying public?
>
<http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/theatre/article1957603.ece>
>
> But there's more here than spectacle. The music, by the Indian composer
> A.R. Rahman and the Finnish folk group Värttinä with Christopher
> Nightingale, airy and earthy by turns, carries and intensifies the story's
> swell of feeling. Themes of friendship, of the destruction of innocence and
> a world divided by race and belief emerge powerfully. The bond between James
> Loye's courageous Frodo and Peter Howe's loyal Sam is warmly affecting.
> Malcolm Storry's compelling Gandalf blends otherworldly wisdom with
> patriarchal concern, and Laura Michelle Kelly as Galadriel, a sweet-voiced
> golden vision who descends in a skein of silk, is both ethereally lovely and
> magisterial. When Rosalie Craig as Arwen bids farewell to Jérôme Pradon's
> sexily charismatic Aragorn, you glimpse the timeless agony of women down the
> ages sending their men off to war.
>
> Most memorable of all is Michael Therriault's riveting Gollum,
> muttering, growling, slithering, crawling and darting, part insect, part
> reptile. Listening to Frodo and Sam comforting each other with an old
> fireside song, he is torn between longing, hateful resentment and flickering
> affection; Therriault's evocation of a mind and body tormented and divided
> is extraordinary.
>
> Peter Darling's choreography thrills, from a rousing tavern song to
> welters of warring orcs to an aerial elfin ballet; and though Warchus keeps
> the stage constantly bustling there is not a note sung, not a movement or an
> effect that doesn't serve the story.
>
> The battle scenes still struggle to create a sufficient sense of scale;
> and the inevitable telescoping of Tolkien's dense material can be
> disorientating. But snobbery and cynicism be damned: this show is a wonder.
> Go with an open mind, an open heart, and wide-open eyes, and prepare for
> enchantment.
>
> .
>
>
>
