194 posts
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Post by thebearofwestend on Sept 23, 2016 22:46:36 GMT
Maybe they should do The Hobbit Musical!
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Post by d'James on Sept 23, 2016 23:11:25 GMT
They could follow the same schedule as Harry Potter and do both in one day.
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3,057 posts
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Post by ali973 on Sept 24, 2016 9:34:17 GMT
I have to agree that I thought it was fabulous. Probably the most lavish and spectacular mega musical that's been around in the last ten years. My only regret is that I saw the final (and fabulous) performance. Would have loved to see it more than once.
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Post by d'James on Sept 24, 2016 15:34:43 GMT
Wish I'd seen it. What were the reviews like?
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193 posts
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Post by groupbooker on Sept 25, 2016 18:41:00 GMT
Reviews were not good, but do reviewers ever go to try to enjoy themselves and admit it wasn't the best they have seen but enjoyed what they saw? It was very big and spectacular, probably the biggest spectacle you will see in the West End. I brought a coach group up from the West Country and as usual with London got held up in traffic and missed about 40 minutes.► But they all came again later in the month to see the full show. They enjoyed it for the spectacle, liked the Hobbits and some songs - no one said rubbish. I do wish they would release a DVD of the show, may help some money to come back??
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258 posts
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Post by notmymuse on Sept 25, 2016 22:29:59 GMT
Reviews were not good, but do reviewers ever go to try to enjoy themselves and admit it wasn't the best they have seen but enjoyed what they saw? It was very big and spectacular, probably the biggest spectacle you will see in the West End. I brought a coach group up from the West Country and as usual with London got held up in traffic and missed about 40 minutes.► But they all came again later in the month to see the full show. They enjoyed it for the spectacle, liked the Hobbits and some songs - no one said rubbish. I do wish they would release a DVD of the show, may help some money to come back?? Reviews were a bit Marmite. A couple of four stars, some one or two. It was interesting because I think many critics thought it would be successful anyway so there was some shock when it closed early and lost so much money. I heard some who had really laid into it say what a shame it was when it closed, and it seemed to end the fashion of reviewing musicals poorly almost automatically. Sadly, it pretty much meant the end of the mega musical too. Will be interesting to be see what form it comes back in, if it does. |
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7,050 posts
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Post by Jon on Sept 26, 2016 16:15:24 GMT
Wasn't the budget £12.5m just for the London production, considering that it was just one producer and not a studio, I'm surprised they were able to raise that much money.
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19,651 posts
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Sept 26, 2016 16:20:54 GMT
Maybe they should do The Hobbit Musical! The main song could be "You're getting to be a hobbit with me."  Taxiiiiiiiiiiiiii! |
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Post by inthenose on May 29, 2022 14:42:45 GMT
Just recognised my old mate Michael Rouse (Legolas) in Death on the Nile. Wondered what he'd been up to!
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2022 14:55:41 GMT
I loved this. It's still one of my all time theatre highlights.
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537 posts
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Post by WireHangers on May 29, 2022 16:26:37 GMT
Still one of my favourite cast recordings to listen to.
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751 posts
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Post by horton on May 29, 2022 16:43:13 GMT
Shame the rights are such a mess, it would be great to revive on a smaller scale.
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Post by inthenose on Jun 14, 2022 11:00:53 GMT
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3,426 posts
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Post by ceebee on Jun 14, 2022 18:21:37 GMT
Yes, RIP. An excellent actor who I enjoyed seeing in both LOTR and Matilda. |
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Post by inthenose on Nov 6, 2022 0:40:30 GMT
As I understand it, the rights to much of Tolkien’s IP (including stage productions of LotR) were purchased by Embracer Group in August of this year, from Saul Zaentz Company, Zaentz having passed away in 2014.
Zaentz had co-produced the show with Kevin Wallace Ltd, who worked essentially under licence from Zaentz. It was their good working relationship which enabled Wallace to move forward, as Zaentz was notoriously protective of the IP after what happened with the Bakshi movie. Unfortunately a lot of people, Kevin included, lost huge amounts of money when the show failed to break even.
As I have mentioned in previous posts, a new production designed for arena style tours has actually been workshopped/pitched to investors now for years… people involved with the “new production” process are made to sign NDA agreements, to not even mention which show they are workshopping.
Embracer Group’s purchase would appear to be the death knell for this show in any form. As a holding company with little interest or experience in theatre in any of their subsidiaries, giving carte Blanche to a producer to revive a stage production would seem very unlikely.
In short, it would appear this is now finally completely dead.
But I desperately hope I’m wrong!!!
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537 posts
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Post by WireHangers on Nov 7, 2022 14:01:50 GMT
As I understand it, the rights to much of Tolkien’s IP (including stage productions of LotR) were purchased by Embracer Group in August of this year, from Saul Zaentz Company, Zaentz having passed away in 2014. Zaentz had co-produced the show with Kevin Wallace Ltd, who worked essentially under licence from Zaentz. It was their good working relationship which enabled Wallace to move forward, as Zaentz was notoriously protective of the IP after what happened with the Bakshi movie. Unfortunately a lot of people, Kevin included, lost huge amounts of money when the show failed to break even. As I have mentioned in previous posts, a new production designed for arena style tours has actually been workshopped/pitched to investors now for years… people involved with the “new production” process are made to sign NDA agreements, to not even mention which show they are workshopping. Embracer Group’s purchase would appear to be the death knell for this show in any form. As a holding company with little interest or experience in theatre in any of their subsidiaries, giving carte Blanche to a producer to revive a stage production would seem very unlikely. In short, it would appear this is now finally completely dead. But I desperately hope I’m wrong!!! Well this isn’t great news. Thank god we’ve got the gorgeous cast recording. Would those same rules apply to any sort of concert production of the show? |
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Post by inthenose on Nov 7, 2022 14:12:10 GMT
As I understand it, the rights to much of Tolkien’s IP (including stage productions of LotR) were purchased by Embracer Group in August of this year, from Saul Zaentz Company, Zaentz having passed away in 2014. Zaentz had co-produced the show with Kevin Wallace Ltd, who worked essentially under licence from Zaentz. It was their good working relationship which enabled Wallace to move forward, as Zaentz was notoriously protective of the IP after what happened with the Bakshi movie. Unfortunately a lot of people, Kevin included, lost huge amounts of money when the show failed to break even. As I have mentioned in previous posts, a new production designed for arena style tours has actually been workshopped/pitched to investors now for years… people involved with the “new production” process are made to sign NDA agreements, to not even mention which show they are workshopping. Embracer Group’s purchase would appear to be the death knell for this show in any form. As a holding company with little interest or experience in theatre in any of their subsidiaries, giving carte Blanche to a producer to revive a stage production would seem very unlikely. In short, it would appear this is now finally completely dead. But I desperately hope I’m wrong!!! Well this isn’t great news. Thank god we’ve got the gorgeous cast recording. Would those same rules apply to any sort of concert production of the show? There are numerous “Lord of the Rings” on stage concerts constantly being performed the world over. They use Shore’s movie score and orchestrations with images/video shown on a big screen/cyc on stage above the orchestra. They don’t constitute a “theatrical performance” (I haven’t seen the contracts etc, so I’m not sure when a concert becomes a production semantically/technically speaking. A concert version of this show would now seem very unlikely bordering on impossible without Embracer’s interest, and investors were wary enough before when it was all much more straightforward. Now it would appear to be completely dead. The other really annoying thing is that a beautiful pro-shot does exist (used to create the EPK’s) but again can’t be released as it then becomes a “movie” and Wallace doesn’t own the rights to that aspect under his stage-only license. |
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Post by crabtree on Nov 7, 2022 22:14:40 GMT
a truly great, spectacle as befitted Drury Lane, with many excellent illusions including a wonderful Pepper's Ghost moment that left me confused and joyous.
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1,442 posts
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Post by theatrefan62 on Nov 7, 2022 22:16:45 GMT
Yes this at Drury Lane was truly incredible. One of my theatre going highlights
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Post by oxfordsimon on Mar 2, 2023 15:23:28 GMT
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1,052 posts
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Post by David J on Mar 2, 2023 15:31:52 GMT
Ambitious is an understatement for the Watermill Theatre... This will be the musical reduced to the actor-musician set up they always do. The website says only the start and end will be staged in the gardens so basically Hobbiton outdoors. Everything else will be reduced to that small theatre |
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3,426 posts
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Post by ceebee on Mar 2, 2023 16:06:30 GMT
This is immense news. I loved the epic Drury Lane version so can't wait to see what the Hobbit sized Watermill does with it!
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Post by ruthieh on Mar 2, 2023 16:42:02 GMT
They lost their AC funding, so it would be fantastic to support this wonderful little theatre. I’m excited!
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1,052 posts
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Post by David J on Mar 2, 2023 17:39:01 GMT
This puts me in mind of the Watermill Theatre’s production of watership down, a book I find has similarities to lord of the rings but on a smaller scale
How the watermill can go from that to lord of the rings in terms of staging and scale will certainly be interesting
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5,139 posts
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Post by Being Alive on Mar 2, 2023 17:49:04 GMT
Well that's one way to fight back against the loss of your ACE funding
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