LOTR - The Musical
The musical version of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ will premiere in Toronto, instead of London as originally intended. While CNN explains it is because there is no theater large enough to accommodate the technically complex production, Sify c/o Reuters says it is because theatres in the British capital are so crammed with hit musicals like “The Producers” and “Mary Poppins” that they opted for Toronto instead. But Globe&Mail.com seems to clarify both these reports by saying, Toronto beat out London because all that city’s theatres big enough to handle the production’s elaborate sets and battle scenes were booked.
Also introduced to the audience were the diverse composers, A.R. Rahman from India, Finland’s folk music group Varttina and Brit Christopher Nightingale. Samples of their original work were performed for both the live and filmed presentation.
Hopefully, these samples will be uploaded sometime to the official website, which btw, mentions that Christopher Nightingale is the “orchestrator & musical supervisor”, not a composer. On the site is also an interview with the producer of the show, Kevin Wallace, who talks about the songs. Being a flash-enabled site, I had to get a screenshot.
