The Lord of the Rings: A Musical Tale - Newbury / Plymouth

It's a circular outdoor stage with picnic benches and seating arcing around the edge of it plus gazebos at the back. If raining, you might want to grab a gazebo, but if you "hide" at teh back you might get more attention from those pesky hobbits... A picnic bench to the side is a safe spot and good for viewing - I find it nicer to watch laterally across the front of the stage rather than face-on.  If getting back in quickly matters to you, choose a seat near the main path in.

Wow, wow...WOW!
That was absolutely incredible. What a talented cast!! Theatre at its best for me.
The venue, sound/ score, set design, musical arrangements - just everything was perfect.
This deserves a transfer, but only if they can keep the magic of the Watermill Theatre alive.
5*

Me too 😢, drove from Sussex with family and a friend, missed the call and the email from the theatre 🤦🏻‍♀️ but really hoping I can get the 5 of us together to rebook. Hope everyone is better very soon.

This brought tears to my eyes - genuinely. Somebody out there needs to look at this beautiful company of fine actor-musicians and keep them together for as long as possible. This is such a special production which deserves to continue somewhere, somehow. They are a true company - this production continues to defy belief and expectation. All credit to the director, producers, cast, crew and the Watermill as a whole.

Has anyone sat in the front row for this? How "compromised" are the elevated scenes? Thanks!

Thank you 😁

I'm going soon and have a quick question, does the show start at the start time or does the cast start milling about with the punters at the start time? If so, when's the actual kick off?

Thanks for all the advice on this one ceebee. I went to the matinee today and it was blessed with the kind of weather they likely had in mind when designing the outside bits (which worked pretty well I thought overall). I saw the original 4 times at Drury Lane and have listened to the OCR many, many times so it was really interesting to see what they've done with it. I'm almost sure I said years ago (maybe on the old forum, or I may have dreamed it) that they should do an actor-musican version of this. 

Overall, it works really well and a solid 4 stars from me. It passes pretty quickly for the most part despite the long running time. It allows the score to shine, which I'm really glad about as it seemed a bit forgotten in the Drury Lane version, and it's very different. I was impressed by the standard of acting/singing/playing - we had an understudy on for Galadriel, but I wouldn't have guessed it. Particularly lovely singing from the actor who played Arwen, which I'm really glad about as that was the role that introduced me in the original to Rosalie Craig, who must have one of the West End's loveliest voices.

It was interesting to see which bits worked and which less so compared with the original. Generally, things worked and worked really well. The start is less clunky and gets you into the world of LOTR far better. I didn't immediately take to Gandalf, but playing him less RSC Shakespeare-style worked very well indeed I thought. He could be a bit jarring in the original.

The Shelob was as good, if not better, than the West End version (helped by great lighting design - the puppets in general were great and manipulated really well), but I was less impressed by the Balrog and the river rising which didn't really conjure up for me what they were supposed to and would have left me a bit confused had I not known what was going to happen. I'm not sure about the Mount Doom bit either and some of the people around me had to ask their friend what happened.

Gollum is as good, if not better, than the original and some interesting acting choices for him changed the character a bit. The battles worked, but the epic scale of Drury Lane probably made them work a bit better there. Song for Moria, which I always thought was a bit dull and could be cut in the original, takes on a far greater meaning here and worked way better, and the themes of different races coming together etc. and their old emnities came out stronger. Overall the whole piece  now feels more like an ensemble piece and less about Sam/Frodo which the original seemed more focussed on. Lewis Maskell has such a lovely voice and it's only today I realised how little Frodo gets to sing.

In the original Sauron always seemed quite near and scary and ever-watchful, but less so here. Maybe a clearer "eye" projection would help. I had a good seat but the layout of the seats/theatre didn't do the design many favours - maybe the stage needs to be a bit higher as heads covered much of the detail down low, comparing what I saw to the brochure which looked really nice and evocative. The singing was often thrilling, just like the original, and I loved the arrangements - they worked really well. I doubt a new cast recording will appear, but I'd love to hear one.  

Lothloroien seemed a bit underwhelming, maybe just because the orignal was pretty spectacular, but it still works. On the other hand, Rivendell (and Arwen playing the harp) worked better for me.

There are some minor changes to some lyrics and I think parts of the script, but nothing huge.

Overall, it's a stunning achievement and such a bold choice for a theatre that can only sit about 220 people and for a long run. Reconceiving it for such a small space, making it actor-musician and re-orchestrating, and keeping the sense of wonder is really something remarkable.  I'm so glad this piece has been revived and hasn't been lost to time as I was scared years ago it would. Hopefully this will see life again after the run here. 

The programme has just 2 roles with listed standbys, so I'm guessing maybe some planned absences for those 2 roles?

Been told something else is happening with this - but it’s outside of London. Another site-specific.

Ah, so exciting!

Where and when?

Could see this doing really well at the Minerva in Chichester, Bristol Old Vic or Clwyd.