Sing, Frodo, sing!

Yesterday Hiro and I went to the theatre to watch the first presentation in Lodon of Lord of the Rings, the musical. Hiro was a little concerned how they would condensate all the story on the stage in just 3 hours. I was more wary if it would be too ridiculous to see the Gollum and Gandalf singing.

Good news: Gandalf doesn't sing. And the Gollum sings just a few verses. Most of the singing is done by the hobbits and elves. Unfortunately the elves are a pain in the ass, but every play needs some beautiful girls with long dresses and even longer hair screaming in a high pitched voice. Otherwise, it would not be Broadway (or West End).

The story is in fact a little crammed but c'mon, did anyone really expect a story that took 9 hours to be told in the screen (in a terribly confusing way, in my opinion), would be clearly told during 3 hours in the stage? I asked Hiro to tell me the plot before it started and it was enough.

So, if you never had the patience to read the book or see the films, don't worry. You probably will feel lost in some scenes, but it is not a huge problem since the scenography is amazing. The production mixes technology and really expensive effects with circus techniques and puppeteering (which I really like). I loved the darkriders, the balrog, the spider and the first appearance of Gollum.

If you're planning to go and you're short of money, I recommend the dinner+theatre deal in lastminute.com - the tickets, plus a good pizza, side salad and juice cost £20 each. Of course the seats are the cheapest ones available (up there in the ceiling of the theatre), but I think it was very good value, and we had no problem to see everything that was going on the stage .