Review - The Lord of the Rings stage play

Now, first and foremost: I am NOT a Lord of the Rings fan. I'd read the books as a kid and seen one of the movies (well, about 98 % of the first one, before I literally walked out of the theatre in frustration). But I had to go this one. Long story, which I won't get into here. Just understand that I had to attend it.

The show premieres on March 23, so this was a "preview" performance, where they try to get some of the kinks out and (hopefully) reduce the run time a little. I will try to avoid "spoilers" for this, but if you do have specific questions, just drop me an email:

The set: The stage was really the most incredible part for me. The floor was a massive, round turntable that came apart in about two-dozen pieces. So the stage was constantly shifting and turning around to form a hilltop or mountain or whathaveyou. Most of the time, the set looked like a forest, and there were faux branches on the top and sides of the set, extending all the way to top of the balcony.

The music: It was okay. My fear was that, say, Frodo would break out into a choreographed dance number. That totally didn't happen. He does sing in a couple of numbers, but its more consistent with the story. The music is mostly slow, celtic-type ballads, also consistent with the setting.

The acting: It was fine. No one, expect for Gollum, really stood out for me as doing anything above and beyond the call of duty, performance wise. And Gollum got a big standing O at the end, so I guess it wasn't just me who felt he'd done a great job.

The story: It was broken up into three parts, similar to Tolkien's books and the films. Each part was roughly an hour long, with a 15 and then 10 minute intermission. I knew about this going into it, but I'm sorry, this is WAAAAAAAAAAY too long for anyone to sit still. People sitting near me were getting restless. When there was a "technical glitch" on stage, several folks were audibly groaning, even though it was fixed in less than 10 minutes. The show ended at 3 hours, 40 minutes, which I can't stress enough, was too long for a theatrical production. At least for me. I have very little experience to relate this to.

Anyways, that's my take. I'm sure it will do quite well in Toronto. I just couldn't see myself going back. But.... as I said earlier, I'm not a LOTR fan to begin with.