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Orchestrating the orcs
By Claire Allfree, Metro 05.06.07
Trouble in Hobbiton: Warchus's show must sell three-quarters of the seats for nine months just to break even
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It's not a good day to be talking to the director of The Lord Of The Rings. During the preview the night before, an actor got his cloak stuck in the revolving stage, badly injured his leg and was taken to hospital. The performance was halted and the following evening's performance cancelled, too. Matthew Warchus is tight lipped on why the £1million set should have caused such problems so close to the official opening on June 19. 'I don't want to talk about it,' he says. 'You can call the office for the facts.'
Perhaps you can forgive Warchus for sounding a little battle-worn. The Lord Of The Rings isn't only the most expensive musical to hit the West End (its budget is an eye-watering £12.5million), it's had a long, uneasy gestation.
Producer Kevin Wallace had the idea ten years ago and since Warchus was hired as artistic director four years ago it's been through several rewrites and technical rethinks - starting with the fact they at first couldn't find a theatre in London big enough to house it.
When it finally premiered last year in Toronto, the New York Times described it as 'incomprehensible' and the show's run ended early. Add to that a general scepticism about the wisdom of adapting Tolkien's trilogy - with its huge cast of hairy hobbits and bloodthirsty orcs and endless battles between good and evil - and Warchus's job is in danger of becoming a public relations exercise.
Still, he's willing to talk candidly. 'I agree that on paper The Lord Of The Rings - The Musical sounds crazy,' says Warchus. 'Juxtaposing a big, serious epic with the triviality of the word "musical" sounds as though it should be a spoof. I can understand where the jokes about Middle-earth Spamalots and singing and dancing orcs come from.
'But there's a strong precedent for big shows that sound like terrible ideas but which turn out to be huge successes. Who would have thought a musical about dancing cats or Eva PerÛn would be a good idea?'
Warchus hadn't read the books when he was approached to direct the show. Yet once he'd got past the mythologising labyrinthine plot, he realised that the world Tolkien had conjured up was inherently theatrical.
'It has battles, which I know from directing Shakespeare works very well on stage,' says Warchus, who directed Henry V for the RSC. 'It has magic, illusion and wonder, which I'm very interested in - I've directed Peter Pan twice.
'Once we decided our version was only going to be three hours long, we could focus on bringing out its themes: the corrupting nature of power; the destruction of the natural world; the yearning for a lost golden age.
'Plus it has this very emotional and spiritual story: this idea of little people combating adversity through friendship. Theatre provides this communion of people. Audiences can get really transported by it. It can do these things much better than film.'
As that sly dig at the Peter Jackson movie trilogy shows, Warchus clearly believes in the superior power of theatre to tell this sort of story, despite having directed on celluloid himself. He talks about theatre's 'poetic muscle', which lets it activate the imagination in a way cinema cannot and clearly relishes a project that encompasses lighting, choreography and special effects as well as dialogue.
Warchus's own pedigree is wide-ranging. His credits include opera, Yasmina Reza's Art and the Madness musical Our House. He even found time earlier this year to direct the farce Boeing Boeing. He's patently exhausted - he keeps on yawning - but far from enervated. 'Tolkien's is a great mind to spend four years with,' he says.
He's learned lessons from Toronto, streamlining the story and cutting 30 minutes off the running time. Yet he also knows that opening a big budget production in London raises the stakes. The Lord Of The Rings has to sell 75 per cent of its seats for nine months to break even. Nonetheless, he dismisses the notion that it's just a commercial venture.
'It's a genuinely soundly motivated thing,' he argues. 'Some people seem to view Lord Of The Rings as simply an exercise in making lots of money. I hope when they see it they realise that can't possibly be the case.'
'I don't just want to show people that we can stage Lord Of The Rings,' he goes on. 'I want to prove to them that we can make a great piece of theatre. If I can make this work as I imagine, then it will be an amazing opportunity and privilege to show people how amazing theatre can be.' As long as that pesky stage behaves, of course.
The Lord Of The Rings, in preview until Jun 19, runs until Mar 2008, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Catherine Street WC2, Mon 7pm, Tue to Sat 7.30pm, Thu and Sat mats 2pm, £15 to £60. Tel: 0870 890 6002. www.thelordoftheringsthemusical.com Tube: Covent Garden
Reader views (1)
A noble effort and you certainly have to respect the incredible work that has gone into it - unfortunately, it does not work and there are many specific things wrong with it.
Biggest disappointment was the depiction of the elves - I would have hoped for something a bit nobler and a little less cirque de soliel!
- Andrew Higgins, London
