TORONTO – Few things could be harder than staging the most expensive theatrical production in history. Fewer still could be harder than adapting 1,200 plot- and action-filled pages, each of them worshiped by generations of readers, to a 3-1/2 hour show and setting it to music. But perhaps the hardest part of bringing “The Lord of the Rings” to the stage is having to make major revisions just weeks before opening night. Tell the ruthless, faceless Orcs to put down their swords before giving them the news. Mount stilts, duck the stage lights, and look a three-story-high Treebeard in the eye when you break it to him. Bounce the revisions off Gollum and wait for him to say that he’s of two minds about it. [More]