Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s “The Lord of the Rings—A Musical Tale,” with Spencer Davis Milford and Tony Bozzuto/Photo: Liz Lauren
“The Lord of the Rings” musical, now playing at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, is a disappointing muddle. It squishes too much material from J.R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy epic into three hours, leaving little room for character development and drama. Despite some lovely music and amazing puppetry, it doesn’t satisfy.
I am the target audience for this show—my father read “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” to me when I was nine, and I used to lie awake worried that Black Riders were in the closet. I’ve since read the books dozens of times, including aloud to my own children. I’ve owned “Lord of the Rings” board games, and the Barbara Remington Middle Earth poster hung in my college apartment. In short, beat me up and take my lunch money—I’m that kind of nerd and had looked forward to this show.
With book and lyrics by Shaun McKenna and Matthew Warchus, and music by A.R. Rahman, the Finnish folk band Värttinä and Christopher Nightingale, the musical tale debuted in Toronto in 2006. It then went to the West End, where it flopped. A scaled-down production debuted at the Watermill Theatre in Berkshire, England last year—which is the version playing here.
Directed by Paul Hart with musical direction by Michael McBride, the show starts promisingly with a birthday party for hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Rick Hall), enlivened by cheerful singing and dancing (the infectious choreography is by Anjali Mehra). Rather than having an orchestra, the actors play instruments on stage—Ben Mathew as Pippin remarkably drags around a cello for the whole show.
Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s “The Lord of the Rings—A Musical Tale,” with Spencer Davis Milford/Photo: Liz Lauren
After the party, Bilbo’s nephew and heir Frodo (Spencer Davis Milford) gets bad news. Gandalf (a splendid Tom Amandes) reveals that a ring Bilbo picked up on a past adventure is the creation of an evil being named Sauron, who wants to use it to rule the world. So Frodo flees his home in the Shire with his friends Pippin, Sam (Michael Kurowski) and Merry (Eileen Doan), picking up companions along the way to help him destroy the ring.
The show stumbles after it leaves the Shire. There are terrific puppet versions of the Black Riders—with giant skeleton horseheads. But the play doesn’t explain why we should fear them. They dance around and make scary noises before one of them stabs Frodo. Aragorn (a regal Will James, Jr.) rescues the hobbits and takes them to the elf refuge of Rivendell, where his true love Arwen (Alina Taber) sings encouraging words. Later, elf queen Galadriel (Lauren Zakrin) sings more encouraging words, framed by a sort of pulsing flower. The show goes on like this—characters come and go, but you don’t get much chance to know them. Some—like Faramir and Éowyn (Éowyn!)— are eliminated altogether.
The singing, particularly the solos by Taber, Zakrin, Kurowski and Ian Maryfield as Gimli, is beautiful, but the words are tough to understand, even if you are familiar with the story.
The show’s best moments are supplied by Tony Bozzuto as Gollum, a creeping and pathetic creature enslaved by the ring. His time on stage with Sam and Frodo is a welcome interlude of solid acting and drama, as is the farewell scene between Aragorn and Boromir (Matthew C. Yee). There are some wonderful set pieces—the Balrog monster is represented by a combination of flashing red lights, rippling fabric, and a puppet with glowing eyes. There’s also a gigantic spider (puppets were designed by Charlie Tymms). But suspense is lacking—the spider is dispatched quickly, like a popped balloon, and it’s off to the next scene.
Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s “The Lord of the Rings—A Musical Tale,” with Spencer Davis Milford and the ensemble/Photo: Liz Lauren
It’s not like a good theatrical version can’t be made of this material. Lifeline Theatre did a fine take on “The Return of the King” in 2002. The contrast to the current production is instructive—the smaller theater stuck with a single book from the trilogy and focused on story and relationships over spectacle.
Here’s the thing about “The Lord of the Rings”—at heart, it’s a profound story of friendship and redemption, about finding courage and overcoming evil, not only in the outside world but also inside yourself. Adaptation is tricky. If you focus too much on the furniture of the tale—the battles, the magic, the twee hobbit hijinks—it fails. Peter Jackson’s movies almost got there, but they focused too much on CGI warfare and took agency from the hobbits, who represent us.
This show is smart to put more focus on the hobbits. The music is also a strength—music is extremely important in the books. But the storytelling is too mushy, and without good storytelling it can’t be much more than a pantomime show, a Christmas pageant with high production values. You’d be better off staying home, reading the books under a tree.
“The Lord of the Rings: A Musical Tale” is presented at The Yard at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 East Grand, through September 1. Showtimes are Tuesday-Friday, 7pm (also Wednesdays at 1pm); Saturdays at 2pm and 7pm; and Sundays at 2pm. Tickets start at $41 and are available at chicagoshakes.com.
