TORONTO — Though theater critics were tepid in their reviews of the stage version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings,” the granddaughter of the legendary English author praised it for staying true to his classic tale. In town Thursday night for the lavish world premiere at the Princess of Wales Theatre, Rachel Tolkien said she admired the opulent sets and Finnish music, and felt the 3 1/2-hour spectacle was a lovely retelling of her grandfather’s Middle-earth saga. “The set is incredible, the costumes are beautiful,” said Tolkien, 35. “The Hobbit” was first read to her when she was 6. “Everything to me that is the most important, and the most moving in the book, they’ve gotten on the stage. I think it’s an amazing feat to have made ‘The Lord of the Rings’ in 3½ hours.” [More]
Category: Original TORn
The great fantasy classic that anticipated J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is now available in English for the first time in 181 years! Preorders for ‘The Magic Ring’ by Baron de la Motte-Fouqué made between March 25 and April 30 will be guaranteed to arrive on the world release date of July 1. Order now to ensure you’re among the first to experience the excitement of The Magic Ring! [More]
Celebriel wrote to tell us about The Tolkien Friendship Society’s March 25 Gondorian New Years Celebration. The group of about 15 regulars is based in Northern California and meets monthly for dinner, costuming, conversation, and contests. Recent event themes have included a Dol Amroth banquet, an Oxford Tea, Tolkien’s Lovers (for Valentine’s Day), and a pub night. The group’s next meeting will be at the Vacaville Middle Earth Festival the weekend of April 21-23. [More]
The CBC National News ran a small segment on the LOTR Musical which opened in Toronto this past week. They detailed the difficulties in getting the play opened in London, the move to Toronto and the big risks involved in creating a play with such a huge budget. The segment features a ton of clips from the musical, which looks quite stunning. Take a look for yourself! (15.3 MOV) [More]
As part of our popular Movie Watch chats, tonight TORn’s IRC gang will be settling in to watch the fourth Harry Potter film, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”.
Join us tonight in the #moviechat channel on our IRC server at 7:00 pm EST when we pop our copies of the film into the DVD player. After the usual confusion we’ll all press play on our individual players and proceed to cheer and jeer (or discuss and argue, if you like!) the finer points of the film.
For information on IRC chat and how to take part in the fun, visit our FAQ. Chat is family-friendly and easy in TORn’s lively chat rooms. If you’ve never checked it out, this is a great chance to meet the regulars and have some fun. [Join the chat now!]
Marion Arts writes: I am a New Zealand composer/singer and have fairly recently released a cd of original songs inspired by the poetry/chants& ballads in LOTR. This is an independantly released cd, of very original acoustic music featuring a most unusual instrumentarium. My name is Marion Arts (ex Red Hot Peppers), The CD is called “Songs Of The Rings” and it is available at [fragilecolours.com]