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

Looking at the Watermill website this show is now completely sold out for the remainder of its run, which is great news for the Watermill and vindicates their price strategy and gamble on this show and the larger cast. Feel sorry for people who suffered one of the cancelled performances as it looks unlikely that they will be able to see the show during this run now. Still think the Watermill could pop an additional performance in on the final Sunday to cover the cancellations, if they shifted the current performance to the evening and put an additional matinee in. This show could also perhaps be a celebration of the covers/understudies who have covered Arwen, Galadriel and Gandalf across the run.

the space is too big for this production... it needs somewhere cosier (do any london venues have greenery outside?) 

😂

It feels as though we're getting ahead of ourselves debating possible London venues if it's already earmarked for a regional space – though the question is, which one! 

From everything I've seen I could see this done at the Lavender Theatre in Epsom.

Going ahead today.

So glad, my trip today was rebooked from one of the previous cancellations.

Hope everyone who's poorly feels 100% very soon.

Discussed the ill luck illness with a FOH member at the weekend.

The issue is exacerbated by most of the cast living together because of the remoteness of the location, one down all down is a common occurrence.

Aaaah, THANKS!  I've seen this several times yet last night was the first time I spotted Gandalf watching on high and I thought it was absolutely magical and the perfect bridge between outdoors and indoors.  Really appreciate you sharing this photo!   Oh, and it seemed the gods were listening as the Old Vic just announced the cast for A Christmas Carol this morning and Geraint Downing is indeed in the cast once again - great news.

Posts speculating about personal matters in relation to cast members removed. 

Please remind yourself of our rules in particular rule 5 in this case. 

Hmmmmm.... *Adds "prophet" to existing skillset*

Watermill have announced that Sioned Saunders will be playing the role of Galadriel for the remaining performances of The Lord of the Rings and Zara Naeem is joining the ensemble. Sadly, for personal reasons, Georgia Louise has had to withdraw from the production.

I saw this last night and I think it's one of the most special nights I've ever had at a theatre. The Watermill Theatre is the perfect setting. The outdoor section at the beginning created a wonderful, magical atmosphere and set a joyful tone for the evening. The transition to the theatre was fairly swift and I loved that we were very much on the journey with them.

Great performances from the cast but particularly from Matthew Bugg playing Gollum/Smeagol. The portrayal of both parts of the character, the perfect accent/voice, violin/fiddle playing and the ability to sing while holding himself upside down was really quite impressive. I rooted for the rest of the cast too, especially the hobbits.

With fitting such an epic story into the length of a musical, bits were lost and there wasn't the same focus on other members of the fellowship, but that's to be expected. It finished around 10.50pm so it really squeezed in everything possible. The battles had some nice choreography but weren't particularly impactful, and were the only time the actor/musician approach felt jarring- the Black Rider appearing while someone played a French Horn at the back of the stage for instance. The rest of the time it felt very natural to have instruments on stage and interwoven. It reinforced how multi-talented the whole cast are.

The puppetry for the appearance of Shelob got a collective gasp from the audience and I also loved the creative use of the whole theatre for the conversation with the Ents. The staging overall was extremely impressive for such a small, what could be restrictive space.

Finishing back outside and helping to repair The Shire continued the magic and some of the cast looked genuinely emotional at the end (perhaps lovely acting or with it being the penultimate show of the run). Such a lovely evening and well worth the weekend trip.