Lord of the Rings musical coming to theater near J.R.R. Tolkien’s hometown
By Dan Selcke
Every big franchise is heading to the stage lately. They’re making a Game of Thrones play for Broadway. Stranger Things is coming to the West End. And now, Deadline reports that a Lord of the Rings musical is heading to the Watermill Theatre in Berkshire, England. That’s near Oxfordshire, where J.R.R. Tolkien wrote his iconic fantasy trilogy.
This particular Lord of the Rings musical has actually been around for a while; it had its world premiere in Toronto back in 2006, when we were all still riding the high of Peter Jackson’s movie trilogy. The cast was 65 strong, the show cost over 10 million dollars to mount, and it did not make back its budget, hence why you may have never heard of it.
This new production is smaller; there are 20 people in the cast and the Watermill Theater only seats 220 people, which is small compared to the capacity of a big Broadway playhouse. Intriguingly, the new show has outdoor sections at the beginning and end, leading to a “semi-immersive” experience, according to Watermill’s artistic director Paul Hart. (Don’t worry, they have an indoor contingency plan if it rains.)
Of course, if this show goes well, maybe the show will transition to a bigger venue. Tickets go on sale March 15.
Are we getting too much Lord of the Rings?
This announcement comes not long after we learned that Warner Bros. Discovery wants to make new Lord of the Rings movies. And then there’s The Rings of Power, Amazon’s ludicrously expensive Lord of the Rings TV show. We can’t help visiting Middle-earth recently.
Does Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke think there’s a danger of Lord of the Rings getting overexposed? “We’ll see,” she told Variety. “We love our original series. We’re extremely proud of it, and invested long term. So, we definitely think there’s enough fan love to sustain ours for a long time.”
The second season of The Rings of Power will be along sometime in 2024. There’s no release window for the new movies yet.
Next. 4 book adaptations we want instead of more Lord of the Rings movies. dark
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