Lord of the Rings

There's a tradition in my family. Christmas Eve we go to the West End of London to take in a show and have a meal. This year we went to see Lord of the Rings at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. I was a little bit unsure what to expect. The stage production had to live up to a legendary book, perhaps the first of the genre to go mainstream, and a superb series of films. And could you really turn LOTR into a musical?

However, the producers and director have a done a great job. They haven't tried to recreate the film on the stage, but to create a spectacle in its own right. The stage set is magnificent, complicated to manage I guess, but giving a great space for the cast to perform in. It's a real feast for the eyes. Frankly, the music and the singing is not up to much, and some of the acting is a little wooden, but this is all compensated for by the visual experience. I can't think of anything that has impressed me as much as this since I saw it rain on the stage at the London Palladium way back in the early 1980s when Tommy Steele and Roy Castle were performing in Singing in the Rain. (The audience were clearly enjoying themselves, and although the show is a little long, there were only one or two 'flat' spots when the attention tended to drift.

My recommendation would be to see it if you can.