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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'Lord of the Rings' musical will be the West End's costliest yet
By Ian Burrell for The Independent

The Lord of the Rings is to be adapted into the most lavish musical production yet staged in the West End, with a budget of £8m.

J R R Tolkien's fantasy epic, shown in its film version as three feature-length movies, is to be condensed into a three-hour show for the London stage.

The project is backed by Saul Zaentz, the film producer responsible for One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, The Unbearable Lightness of Being and The English Patient.

Producers of the musical are looking for a 2,000-seat theatre to stage the production, which is scheduled to open in the spring of 2005.

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