The Lord of the Rings – A Musical Tale is playing at Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre until 22 June, before heading to the Gold Coast from 4 July 2025.
More information and tickets via lotronstage.com.
Following The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022-) and The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024) comes the latest J.R.R. Tolkien milking. With music by A. R. Rahman, Värttinä, and Christopher Nightingale, and lyrics and book by Shaun McKenna and Matthew Warchus, The Lord of the Rings: A Musical Tale first premiered in a three-act structure in 2006 in Toronto before moving to London’s West End (2007-2008) to mixed reviews. It was later revived in 2023 by the Watermill Theatre in Berkshire and cut down to its current two-act format.
First published in 1954, The Lord of the Rings is the story of a hobbit named Frodo Baggins who is tasked to destroy the ring of power to prevent the evil Sauron from taking over Middle Earth. Joining him on his epic quest is the wizard Gandalf, the elf Legolas, the dwarf Gimli, humans Strider and Boromir, and hobbits Sam, Merry and Pippin.
The audience is first welcomed into the theatre for the celebration of Bilbo’s (Laurence Coy) 111th birthday. Before the show starts, the characters sing songs, interact and play games with the audience. It’s the perfect immersive introduction of the joy of Hobbiton and its habitants.
The Lord of the Rings: A Musical Tale is an ambitious piece of theatre that doesn’t always work. Tolkien’s saga spans across three lengthy books so understandably a lot of story is omitted. The Rohans along with the battle for Helm’s Deep, for example, are removed. Some story beats have also been changed, along with the inclusion of the destruction of Hobbiton, which wasn’t included in Peter Jackson’s 2003 Oscar-winning film, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
It could have been better had it followed the two-part structure of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which really allowed time to get to know the characters and live in that world. I’m not saying it’s impossible to condense three books into three hours of material, it’s just incredibly difficult. I don’t think they completely failed, and I give them top marks for effort, but even the 1978 animated film, which has an over two-hour run time, was incomplete, ending at the battle for Helm’s Deep.
There are also just too many characters for a three-hour-long production. Arwin, Denethor, Rosie and Saruman could have been removed all together and Galadriel’s role condensed. The strength in this production lies with the relationship between the Hobbits, but I wish more time was given to character development and building the fellowship’s comradery.
Some scenes felt long and unnecessary, while others felt rushed, swiftly moving from one location to another. The inclusion of songs is the only time it stopped to breathe yet also brings the story to a halt as the music is largely inconsequential and adds little, if nothing, to move the story forward. However, the more I’ve listened to the music online, the more I’ve grown to like it.
The magic in Tolkien’s writing is his overly descriptive use of words, which Jackson captured brilliantly in his masterful trilogy. It’s so rooted in our culture that when we think of this story, its locations and characters, we have a vivid picture in our heads. In this truncated version, Simon Kenny‘s set design is quite minimal, which is a missed opportunity and could have potentially helped those unfamiliar with the story to better understand it.
The use of costumes, wigs and make-up also plays a big part in creating that world. For example, in Tolkien’s books, elves are described as tall and skinny with long hair and pointy ears. Obviously, you’ve got a diverse ensemble cast of various heights playing various roles and races so it would be difficult to capture the race of elves perfectly as described in the book. But simple changes like Elrond (Andrew Broadbent) and Legolas (Hanlon Innocent) having long hair would have helped immensely. I can forgive the main characters all being around the same age and height even though, without their key characteristics, they all felt like humans.
In comparison, the wigs that Ian Stenlake (Saruman), Crawford (Gandalf) and Jemma Rix (Galadriel) wear feel more in line with Tolkien’s original vision. Rix is given subtle tinsel highlights to help strength her ethereal look, despite wearing a slightly-out-of-character tailored gold jumpsuit.
The ideal short stature casting of Merry (Jeremi Campese), Pippin (Hannah Buckley) and Sam (Wern Mak) worked best during scenes with Strider/Aragon (Rohan Campbell) and Gandalf (Terence Crawford). We had swing James Frampton playing the role of Frodo who was taller than the other hobbits so I’m unsure of Rarmian Newton’s height.
Despite its shortcomings and some odd story choices, The Lord of the Rings: A Musical Tale is a quality show with some great performances and wonderful music. The inclusion of songs in the Elvish language, sung beautifully by Arwin (Stefanie Caccamo), were breathtaking. Each race has their own individual sound. The elven songs are powerful and melodic (Galadriel’s The Final Battle is particularly good), whereas the hobbit songs are folk-like and jovial (The Cat and the Moon is my favourite).
The stand-out performer is Laurence Boxhall as Gollum/Smeagol who captures the brilliant physicality and distinctive voice of Andy Serkis (who motion captured the role in Jackson’s films). Mak, who has the luxury of playing the most fleshed out character, is also perfectly cast as Sam.
Campbell, making his professional debut as Boromir, did a valiant effort as Strider on the night, but I can’t help but wonder what highly experienced actor Rob Mallett would have done with the role. Although I also enjoyed the performances of Campbell, Connor Morel (Gimli) and swings Patrick Schnur (Boromir) and Frampton (Frodo), I thought Innocent was best. While he doesn’t match the physical attributes of Legolas, I found his movements swift, premise and graceful as is written in the book.
Another highlight is the impressive puppetry work by Charlie Tymms and Ashleigh Cheadle. The skeleton horse heads representing the ringwraiths feel scarier thanks to lighting design expertly crafted by Rory Beaton. While the sheer size of Shelob the spider had people shielding their eyes in terror.
In contrast, the fight with Balrog could have been better. While it’s done well enough, filling the entire stage, I was left underwhelmed. It’s such a powerful moment in the film and if you hadn’t seen it, you’d be scratching your head to figure out what exactly was Gandalf’s fate. The same goes for Gollum and knowing if he falls into the fires of Mount Doom or not. Frodo says it in a throwaway line, but it would have been more powerful to actually clearly see it. George Reeve’s projection designs do help, but I couldn’t help but think of and compare it to the incredible work of the film’s CGI artists.
It’s evident that most of the budget went into the puppetry and technical specs with little spared for costumes. Strangely no costume designer is mentioned anywhere in the programme so take that as you will, but the costumes do look a little cheap with the look of the orcs suffering the most. Leather clad and in painted gas masks, they feel like Mad Max rejects yet far less threatening. Their saving grace is well crafted choreography by Anjali Mehra and fight scenes by Dani McCallum, who manage to make the orcs appear more menacing, despite the actor’s short statue against the taller main actors.
While The Lord of the Rings: A Musical Tale doesn’t quite capture the epic scope of Jackson’s films or the complexities of Tolkien’s writing, there’s enough artistry and ambition to delight and amaze. I only wish I hadn’t read the books or seen the films so I wouldn’t have anything to compare it to.
4/5 STARS
TINSEL and TAP SHOES 