As director Paul Hart’s revival of a musical version of The Lord of the Rings has an alfresco prologue and epilogue in the gardens of Berkshire’s delightful riverside theatre, staff were checking weather apps like players on the last afternoon of a crucial cricket match. There seemed a risk that – in defiance of the storyline of JRR Tolkien’s mid-1950s trilogy, which became three huge early 21st-century movies – the battle for Middle-earth might end as a rain-affected draw.
But, as at the Oval the previous day, meteorological apps proved too apocalyptic and the play began and ended almost on time. Although, under dry skies, the start was briefly delayed by a low-flying helicopter. (Government press officers may be dismayed that the immediate consensus was that it was Rishi Sunak going home.)
First seen in the UK in 2007 at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane – a 1996-seat theatre – the show is revived at the 220-capacity Watermill. This means that Simon Kenny’s design and Anjali Mehra’s choreography are a theatrical equivalent of stunts designed to find how many people can fit in a Mini.
The creative team ought to be listed in a Guinness book of theatrical records. During the long sections inside the tiny theatre, they cram in battles, orc attacks, treks across land, over mountains or through caves and lavish production numbers involving 20 actors or musicians (several performers also play instruments).
As with the musical version of The Third Man currently running at the Menier in London, speech and score sometimes feel more competitive than complementary. Stephen Sondheim’s rule was that characters start singing when they can no longer speak, but here they more tend to shut up to belt out. The songs, though, move with enjoyable eclecticism through folk via Bollywood to pop, echoing the musical backgrounds of the Indian/Finnish/Anglo-American compositional team of AR Rahman, Värttinä, and Christopher Nightingale.
Matthew Warchus and Shaun McKenna’s dialogue and lyrics locate tonally between the Ring Cycle and Harry Potter, where Tolkien’s quest by a fresh-faced group for a piece of supernatural jewellery sits quite happily. References to the despoiling of the earth by greed and war land more emphatically now than at the premiere. At three hours running time, the adaptation risks irritating Tolkien-holics with bits left out of the books, while dismaying Hobbit-phobics (more my tribe) with some of the stuff that survives.
But the cast is a blast. Louis Maskell’s Frodo dramatises the agonising undeniable destiny of one of children’s literature’s numerous Christ figures. Nuwan Hugh Perera’s Sam and Georgia Louise’s Galadriel bring charming presence and lovely voices. With extraordinary contortions of torso and vocal cords, Matthew Bugg’s Gollum makes a formidable case for the superiority of Equity members over CGI. Peter Marinker’s Gandalf is in an unenviable fight with Ian McKellen’s movie version but finds some space of his own.
The original London run is more known for losing money than winning friends. On a stage about 30 times smaller – with budget presumably reduced proportionately – this spectacle of compression, by aiming small, brings big rewards.
The Lord of the Rings: A Musical Tale is at Watermill theatre, Berkshire, until 15 October
