Regular readers will know that The Lord of the Rings: A Musical Tale has been playing at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre (quick, catch it before it closes on Sept 1!); and will then head down under, first to New Zealand and then to Australia. Staffer Madeye Gamgee went to see the show in Chicago, and was fortunate to have an opening preview conversation with Producer Kevin Wallace.
“This is all about the Hobbits telling their story.”
Pippin (Ben Mathew), Sam (Michael Kurowski), Frodo (Spencer Davis Milford), and Merry (Eileen Doan) dance as only hobbits can.
This Gandalfian counsel from The Lord of the Rings: A Musical Tale producer Kevin Wallace provides an essential lens for anyone engaging in the magic that sweeps across the Chicago stage in this re-imagined production of the epic Tolkien classic. Just as Tolkien himself discovered upon penning, “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit,” so too this musical seeks to transform the epic into the intimate, connecting us to joyfully humble hobbit roots through memorable songs, sparkling dance, and music from the performers themselves. “It’s a retelling of their story,” per Wallace; appropriately so given Frodo’s entrusting of the Red Book of Westmarch to Sam and his progeny. The songs go ever on and on.
Originally conceived “as a great piece of commercial art” in its mithril-financed, three-act/3.5 hour initial form for Toronto (2006) and London’s West End (2007-8), ‘The Lord of the Rings Musical’ has seen a renaissance at a much more hobbit-like scale. Now billed more simply as A Musical Tale, the 2023 revival at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury (UK) dropped an entire act, reduced the number of actors by more than 40, and compressed the run time by nearly an hour. (You can find staffer greendragon’s review of that production here.) “Compared to the earlier productions, this is ‘rough’ theater,” Wallace explained. “It’s hobbits telling their story with what’s available to them… It’s actually ‘big’ theater with the illusion of being ‘poor’. You’re allowed to see how we’re doing it.” Which is why Pippin goes to war carrying a cello, a feat which comes off surprisingly well, to the consternation of a few marauding orcs; and we’re talking some serious swordsmanship by the double bass player.
Two and three quarter hours to cover the whole book? Really?
Spencer Davis Milford as Frodo and Tom Amandes as Gandalf
The PJ extended edition movies combined run for over 12 hours of content, and listening to the unabridged audiobooks will take you at least 54 hours at regular speed. So how is it possible to pack all of this theatrical Third Age goodness into the flight time between New York and Chicago (and still in time to wrap up before all the local restaurants close)? Kevin Wallace is very familiar with the challenge: “Given the films, we must satisfy our audience’s primary expectations.” Appearances by a very shadowy and flame-flowing Balrog, a stage-filling Shelob, and an especially spot-on and athletic homage to Andy Serkis’ Gollum (by actor Tony Bozzuto) certainly fed these appetites. “The essence of the story, though, is Sam’s and Frodo’s journey. Side sections have to fall away…” So the lands of Gondor and Rohan become “the Lands of Men”, Théoden and Denethor combine to become simply the “Steward of Gondor”, and we lose storylines and characters that many find dear. All you lovers of beacon-lighting, Paths of the Dead/Dead Marshes, and “I am no man” heroics may need a post-play re-watching, particularly of the second two movies, to scratch those particular itches. But even though there’s still no Bombadil, if you’ve ever wondered what John Lithgow’s version of Treebeard would sound like, this is the production for you.
Still, this is no mere cryptic condensation – despite what some less flattering critics have dwelled on since the inaugural performances in London and Toronto. This production certainly rewards any who are already familiar with the LotR story and personalities, whether through the book and/or movies: character connections are easier, e.g., between Merry and Pippin or Frodo and Gandalf; and plot compression leaves room for personal appreciation of excluded side quests and lost details. I found that the musical’s condensed frame actually served to intensify how I experienced some core Tolkien themes: the blending of voices, musical languages, and cultures in a functioning (and whirling) Fellowship; the enchantment and providential intricacy of dance as an element of creation and connection; the longing and reassurance of beauty observable in stellar spheres, sharply contrasted with the darkness that lingers here in Middle-earth (thank you, Kevin, for continuing to defend the inclusion of “The Star of Eärendil” on the song list!); and especially the hope and heartbreak of repentance, sometimes attained as with Boromir, and sometimes approached and then rejected, as with Gollum’s tragic tale. This was beautifully portrayed (far better than anything PJ produced) in Gollum’s self-aborted restoration to a more noble, never-ending story of worthy Hobbit heroes, as sung by Frodo and Sam in the poignant “Now and for Always” as they approach Mordor and Shelob’s snares. Gollum’s plaintive lyrical mimicry, and the mirroring choreography as he and Frodo together reach for some unseen saving grace, all leverage live theater powerfully in a demonstration of their shared addiction, and diverging paths, given the power of the One Ring. We even hear a faint note of self-sacrifice from Sméagol as he falls toward the Cracks of Doom, “Master is free…”
While condensed, this Musical Tale still manages to offer worthy, and unique, moments to integrate into the ways you may have experienced the artistic and thematic power of Tolkien’s story.
The Road Keeps Going Ever On
The Red Book of Westmarch gets a new owner at the Grey Havens in this production, too!
The Lord of the Rings: A Musical Tale continues to evolve. “Our Watermill production was a beautiful, intricate Swiss watch,” said Wallace. “Now, here in Chicago, we’ve built a more highly sophisticated Swiss clock.” Even with all the sets, puppetry, and props shipped in from last year’s UK production, the US premiere enjoys a larger venue than the Watermill, courtesy of the Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s innovative and flexible stage, The Yard. Director Paul Hart works wonders in leveraging this flexibility, from multilevel balconies built into the set, to Gollum’s gymnastic entrance from mid-audience to begin Act 2, to the lighting and mechanical magic that the set makes possible. The US cast and orchestration has also grown a bit from its Watermill roots, adding four new cast members/musicians (including that dangerous double bass). “It’s a production with Chicago ownership, reflecting the demographics and acting talent of the city,” added Wallace.
So where does the Road lead once the Chicago production wraps on September 1? The Civic Theater in Auckland has already scored a similar limited run as Chicago’s, with shows from the 5th though the 24th of November. And just announced is an Australia premiere, with performances beginning at the Sydney State Theater on January 7, 2025. And whither then? Well, wait and see!
“This production is not only a phenomenal opportunity, but also a huge responsibility. You just don’t want to take it for granted… In time, others will take the words and the music and ask, ‘How will I tell that story?’ But we’re still in our infancy with this one.” Suffice it to say that Kevin Wallace has dreams. Big dreams. Take some jewelry to Mordor big, unsurprisingly.
The Lord of the Rings: A Musical Tale continues through September 1 at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. You can find tickets on their website, here.
Staffer Madeye Gamgee and his wife Rosie (Emily and Jim Wert) bookend longtime TORn friend/birthday girl Prof. Constance Wagner, and our new friend Michael Kurowski post-preview. And Samwise sure sports some stylish shoes when not in hairy feet!
Look for TheOneRing.net’s annual Baggins Birthday Bash at Griffith Park just 4 weeks from today.
You can find the event at https://www.facebook.com/events/8264139026978984/ and RSVP in the discussion section with what food, beverage or picnic supplies you plan to bring. If you don’t do FB, you can RSVP to Garfeimao@TheOneRing.net with that info. Please read the About info, and open it to reveal More because there is a lot of info in there, including driving directions, the fact we are in the Mineral Wells portion of the park, and start time (11:30am).
If you are looking for ideas of what to bring, you can see from the above image, portable chairs, pop up tents, blankets, sunscreen, hats, sunglasses are all standard. Cosplay, full on or just geeky shirts, we welcome it all and often have a very robust contest.
And then there are the food items, this is a Potluck, so bring at least enough of something you and your traveling companions can eat. We always end up with too much, but that’s not a terrible thing. One you, we had lots of drinks and no cups, so supplies like cups, plates and eating utensils is also a really good idea. And some ice chests to keep those beverages cool. And finally, desserts. We moved off bringing an official birthday cake, to turning that into a competition of Cake and Cupcake makers to design their own Middle-earth themed tasty desserts, so put your creative thinking caps on.
TORn’s good friend Donato Giancola is no stranger to the realms of Middle-earth. His book Middle-earth: Journeys in Myth and Legend is filled with incredible art inspired by Tolkien, and at 2022’s exhibition of his work at the Huntsville Museum of Art, his giant ‘Beacons of Gondor’ painting took centre stage.
He now brings us word that he has completed his latest large-scale painting. This time the title is ‘Bridge of Khazad-dûm’. Here’s a video of the work:
If you’d love to have such a masterpiece hanging on your wall, the good news is that prints are available – in limited numbers! Find out how you can get your hands on a print – and other Middle-earth goodies – here. And feast your eyes on ‘Bridge of Khazad-dûm’ in all its glory:
Vanity Fair revealed earlier this week that Prime Video’s second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power would have a very particular magic, with British actor Rory Kinnear taking on the iconic role of Tom Bombadil. We provided some speculation as to how Master Tom might contribute to the continuing Second Age saga here, and we are also feeling pretty good about our speculations last January around Tom’s potential appearance this coming season, which premiers on August 29.
Along with this article, VF and Prime Video also offered some early images of Middle-earth’s Eldest in an apparently dry and barren land of Rhûn. Fan reactions to the photos have been predictably mixed, from “perfect!” to (in kinder iterations) “huh?”. That’s nearly always the case whenever a favorite character gets distilled to a single look, costume, or actor (even with the initial Peter Jackson trilogy). Here at TheOneRing, we love some spirited debate, especially when we all remember to be kind.
We also love to take closer looks at these kinds of announcements, in this case, of the four photos included in the Vanity Fair article. There are some details which caught our attention!
Tom Bombadil in The Rings of Power played by Rory Kinnear
Jolly Tom Sports Some Iconic Costuming
“So where are the yellow boots?” was one of the most widespread expectations, and reactions, to the Vanity Fair reveal. Many of VF’s photos involved strong backlighting and darker shadows, and it was challenging to nail the true hue of Tom’s footwear. We did get one exterior shot, though, which indeed displayed a dusty yellow tinge on those iconic boots: maybe not canary yellow, but certainly in the same spirit as the classic Hildebrandt Brothers illustration from their 1976 calendar.
We also got a blue jacket, though perhaps not as “bright” as Old Forest Tom sings about along the Withywindle. Remember, this is Second Age Tom, and perhaps he’ll acquire more than one coat for his closet. We’re not even sure whether he’s taken up residence yet on the border of the someday-Shire, nor met his lifelong love and likely fashion consultant Goldberry.
Interestingly, there are some costuming details which already hint at Bombadil’s deep connection to nature, including tree-like embroidery on his tunic, and a be-flowered belt, fashioned seemingly in the shape of stars. That resonates with the same stellar theme which drove Season One’s Stranger to travel eastward.
And then there’s Tom’s hat. Besides the fact that it sports a muted suggestion of a dark, and hardly flamboyantly placed feather (is it peacock – a notion which Tolkien abandoned – swan, “blue”, or something else entirely?), Second Age Tom’s hat seems strikingly wizard-like: wide-brimmed and fittingly pointy. Might we be seeing a further Gandalf-like embellishment, should Tom choose to offer his headgear as a gift to a certain visiting Stranger?
We See Some Curious Environmental Embellishments
It’s also worth taking a closer look at the location where we find this budding Council of the Wise. There are a few things that stand out:
The environment is largely bone-dry and desolate. The surrounding hills seem treeless, and even the cactus houseplants are withering. The interior floors are dusty enough to scream thirst. This is the anti-Old Forest, and about the most non-Bombadillian landscape one can imagine. That’s probably why Tom is looking pretty sober in these stills. It’s a situation demanding intervention, not celebration.
And yet, there are still hints of a potential oasis. Just as we saw the Stranger restore a fruit tree to life in Season One, perhaps Tom’s work has already begun here with the flourishing of flowers and a lemon tree in the exterior shot we’ve been given. Or maybe Tom is simply a limoncello fan. And perhaps as a nod to another refuge long in the future, or simply to fans of the Hobbit, we even see that Tom is a beekeeper! Plus his furniture looks like it would match well with the Beorn aesthetic.
It’s clear that Tom’s house in Rhûn has been lived in for a long time. The candles are melted down to near nubs, and the pottery and furnishings seem well-worn. This is not Tom’s first rodeo in Rhûn, even if he’s been wandering as far and wide around Middle-earth as your friendly Harfoots.
Probably most mysterious of all, there appear to be star and/or planetary maps embellishing the ceilings in the Second House of Tom Bombadil. These constellation symbols have been central to numerous story lines in Season One – for the Harfoots, the Stranger, and the Three Mystics seemingly banished in last season’s final episode. Perhaps Tom will shed a bit more light on exactly what these star signs mean.
It’s useful to remember that we’ve only seen these four pictures, and know precious little about the full extent for how and where Tom Bombadil will be integrated into the second season of the Rings of Power. We each bring personal expectations for this story line. For some, Tom has been somewhere between a complete mystery and an annoying speed bump in the larger LotR saga. For others, he looms large on our list of favorite characters, which increases the risk, of course, should he be mishandled. We’ll simply have to wait another 13 or so weeks for a the full Bombadil experience.
Hey dol! Merry dol! This will be a challenge!
For those that may have missed it, here’s the Bombadil-focused content from Prime Video’s press release on May 29. You can find the entire release here.
CULVER CITY, California—May 29, 2024 — Today, Prime Video revealed that Laurence Olivier Award-winning actor Rory Kinnear (James Bond films, The Imitation Game), who, as previously announced, joined the Season Two cast of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, will portray the fan-favorite J.R.R. Tolkien character Tom Bombadil. The second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will premiere exclusively on Prime Video on August 29, 2024.
This announcement comes after much online speculation, as the timeless, mysterious, and jovial Tom Bombadil has been beloved by Tolkien fans for decades. Given his hand in so many key moments of the larger story, the character’s absence from other on-screen depictions of Middle-earth has often been the topic of robust conversation. The news was revealed through brand-new images from the series, and an interview in Vanity Fair that was released online earlier today.
The series’ showrunners J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay are excited to bring this new element to the story, and are thrilled that the gifted Kinnear is bringing this iconic character to life. “He’s whimsical and magical, and almost verging on silly. But also has the wisdom of the ages and the music of the spheres and deep emotional wells of ancient history and myth, and his conception and function are tied to Norse myths and have deep roots in European fairy tale,” McKay says. “So weirdly, he’s kind of the mostLord of the Rings thing in Lord of the Rings.” Payne adds, “Tom is sort of a curiosity within that structure because while it is darker, Tom Bombadil is singing and saying lines that could be nursery rhymes from children’s poems. So, he sort of defies the tonal shift of the rest of the season and is a real point of light amidst an otherwise sea of darkness.”
Kinnear embraced the opportunity to jump into the famed yellow boots, elaborating that while the description of Tom Bombadil was well-known to readers, he relished the opportunity to portray the voice and mannerisms of the enigmatic being for the first time in a filmed iteration of Tolkien’s work. “There’s this sense of huge experience, huge openness, huge empathy, and having gone through so much that he [Bombadil] knows it’s the small things that are important. That felt actually quite domestic, felt quite reachable in terms of my understanding of who he was.”
Character Description:
Rory Kinnear plays “Tom Bombadil” a figure of unknown origin in Tolkien’s works who projects a timeless wisdom, often propelling characters in a direction to see things more clearly and helping them better understand the wide world around them. In the lore, he claims to be as old as Middle-earth itself, possessing wisdom far beyond the reaches of others. Essential to the spirit of discovery and of the search for meaning, Bombadil is famously clad in yellow boots, blue jacket, and a feathered hat, and prone to enigmatic expressions in singsong verse.
Additionally, Chris Smith, Tolkien Publishing Director at HarperCollins, revealed in Vanity Fair that the book titled The Adventures of Tom Bombadil will be re-released in paperback by HarperCollins on August 20, 2024, just ahead of the streaming series’ return to Prime Video. Smith said, “It’s my hope that, with the introduction of Rory Kinnear’s portrayal of Tom Bombadil in The Rings of Power, audiences are inspired to learn more about this unique character beloved of generations of readers around the world, and will delight in sharing in his many adventures in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth.”
