Elvish is back - in the Lord of the Rings musical By John Ezard for The Guardian
It seems calculated to turn the purist pale with horror. Plans were unveiled yesterday to turn JRR Tolkien's often sombre epic The Lord of the Rings into the most expensive West End musical ever staged.
A singing and dancing cast of 50, playing hobbits, elves, giant trees, wizards, monsters and the other main creatures of the author's Middle Earth are due to take to the stage in spring 2005.
A planned budget of £8m will set a West End record, £1.8m more than Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Kevin Wallace, its co-producer, a long-standing collaborator of Andrew Lloyd Webber, said: "If Shakespeare can put all England on stage in Henry IV, I am confident we can put on the whole of Middle Earth.
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