Word: tolkien
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...stage musical of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy saga? Good Lord, why? Well, for starters, because the original three-volume story was filled with music--more than 50 songs that added levity and lyricism to the military drumbeat of its narrative. And also because: Why not? LOTR is certainly an alluring franchise; it's one of the most popular and beloved works in publishing history and (sorry, George Lucas) the all-time top-grossing movie trilogy. So producer Kevin Wallace raised about $24 million, from private and Canadian government sources, to mount a 3 1/2-hr. epic--the longest musical this side...
...favorite song, replacing a dialogue scene, finding some extra business for the star. That's nothing compared with the three-year ordeal of bringing Middle-earth to life. The mostly British creative team, beginning with playwright Shaun McKenna, had to figure out how to choreograph the complex battles Tolkien described; how to visualize the dozen realms in the saga and the dozens of characters of many species; how to blend narrative, drama and music in a three-act production--and do it all without retakes or post-production computer effects. Most daunting was the task of satisfying all those Tolkienites...
...preparation for a typical musical has its familiar anxieties: cutting a favorite song, replacing a dialogue scene, finding some extra business for the star. That?s nothing compared to the three-year ordeal of putting J.R.R. Tolkien?s fantasy trilogy on the Prince of Wales stage in Toronto. How to choreograph the great battles Tolkien described? To visualize the dozen realms in the great saga? To blend narrative, drama and music in a 3-1/2 hr. production, and do it all without retakes and post-production computer effects? Most daunting, how to satisfy the million of Tolkien fans whose...
...same: generating ideas, evaluating them and executing them, with many creative sparks over time. The role of collaboration may be more obvious in business than in writing, but even apparently solitary creators like writers read constantly and talk to one another. In the 1920s and 1930s, for example, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis batted around religious and literary ideas with the Inklings, a group of unfashionably Christian professors who met weekly at an Oxford...
...tendency to utilize J. R. R. Tolkien’s muted disapproval of the work—“It really won’t do, you know!”—as “proof” that Lewis is all wrong. Tolkien was, of course, a devout and serious Christian believer who succeeded in converting Lewis from militant atheism. Somehow, critics imply, this should mean that Lewis’ work is sub par or meaningless. Why Tolkien’s critique should disqualify Lewis’ work is not clear, unless one expects Christians...