Dance Frodo Dance or why people should not turn every movie into a musical no matter how good it seems...

Okay so since I am such a musical nut I decided to attend LOTR the musical last night. One thing was it was three hours long much like the movies. Unlike the movies though was the fact that they were all squished into ONE musical. This stage production had two intermissions (To delineate between the stories). The acting was very flat and it was almost comical when Legolas (formally Orlando Bloom) came out and there was an audible annoyed sigh that this actor was not as good looking as Bloom. Poor guy. The singing was good, especially from the two female leads. But it comes down to the fact that the songs came out of nowhere and most of the time were some what forced. And yes there was a song about the ring with Gollum singing (that was for you Ash). Gollum was good (got the most applause) but ended up looking more like a walking skeleton that has epilepsy then the movie version that we are all used to.

The thing that saved my sanity for sitting there for so long were the sets. They were without a doubt the best sets I have seen in a stage production, musical or otherwise. They had rotating stages that changed shape, smoke, flying actors coming from the ceiling, 15ft spiders that scared the crap out of me, talking trees, men as horses and the best thing, everything moved so seamlessly. My overall assessment is that if you are at all interested in set design then go. If you can get a half price ticket, go. It was a good try but I am sure that Tolkien would have a thing or two to say about Aragon and Legolas's flat and stiff acting skills.