Hot on the heels of Staffer Madeye Gamgee’s excellent review of the Chicago premiere of The Lord of the Rings musical, TORn Discord chatter Stickybeebae offers more thoughts after seeing the production.
The Lord of the Rings musical: a must-see with familiar elements and exciting new twists
By Stickybeebae
Last week, I had the chance to catch the show and catch up with several actors and fans afterwards. Seeing the musical, which debuted 2006, had seemed like a far off dream, as its original run had ended before I finished high school. Helmed by a different production team, this rendition still keeps the original score by A. R. Rahman and Varttina and script with some modifications when it comes to general ambiance.
Though the budget is scaled down, which also made the show more accessible, there is not a lack of quality.
Photo credit: Chicago Shakespeare Company
Our journey begins with a soft opening of Bilbo Baggin’s 111th birthday party, where the audience is invited to participate in the form of yard games and conversation with the guests. It was a delightful surprise that I hoped would be carried over from the Watermill Theater, where this production launched, as the Chicago Shakespeare Theater is a very different venue.
Rick Hall as Bilbo Baggins, welcomes the audience to his party.
After Bilbo’s grand exit, the plot takes a darker turn as those familiar with the books and films are aware, and the story clips along at a steady pace. Due to the condensed nature, there are some liberties taken with this adaptation, most prominently the combination of the Two Towers and Return of the King and several character omissions such as Eowyn, Eomer, and Faramir. Denethor also takes on a very different role and in many ways is reminiscent of Theoden. The exposition is never heavy handed and gives audiences enough backstory to understand this rendition and the characters involved, without becoming burdensome. One example of this is the introduction of Gollum, which occurs during the Council of Elrond, as we are introduced to his backstory through a flashback enacted by shadow puppets.
Given the fantastical nature of Middle Earth and manner of frightening and mystical creatures, puppetry becomes an integral component of the production. The first emergence are the skeletal horses of the black riders. I was blown away by what the production was able to accomplish in terms of effects to bring the show to life. Whether it was the grand illumination of the Door of Durin, or the terror of the Balrog awakening in the Mines of Moria, it felt like you were there experiencing the events with the characters. My only disappointment was the lack of physical presence of Treebeard and the Balrog, which are largely achieved through sound design and lighting effects.
The physical performances of the actors is what really breathes life into this adaptation of Tolkien. Spencer Davis Milford gives a haunting portrayal of Frodo as he grapples with losing himself to the ring. Due to the truncated nature of the story, his gradual realization that his story could potentially echo Gollum’s is a highlight in terms of character arcs. Tony Bozzuto as Gollum is delightfully unhinged, as he spends much of the second act bouncing around the stage.
It’s reminiscent of Andy Serkis’s portrayal both in terms of movement and voice, but he achieves it without any CGI. I asked him after how he was able to maintain that sort of energy throughout the show and he credited feedback from the audience, so when you go don’t hesitate to laugh, cry, or in the case of when Shelob appears, shriek like a small child. Another standout performance was Will James Jr., who had a commanding presence worthy of the character of Aragorn. It takes little suspension of disbelief to imagine him motivating the armies of the west to march into Mordor.
Instead of an orchestra, there is a cozier feel as the cast play their instruments on stage. Gimli has a lament to Moria with an acoustic guitar that will steal your heart, and when Sam reminisces about the Shire, an ensemble of hobbits and Rosie lifts him up in song. It is hard to rival the performances of the great Laura Michelle Kelly and Rosalie Craig but Lauren Zakrin and Alina Taber did phenomenal jobs as Galadriel and Arwen, respectively. And it shows that the grand acrobatics of the original musical were not necessary to bring those characters to life. There is a strong South Asian influence to Anjali Mahra’s choreography that incorporate movement that almost weave the story together like a tapestry. The show finds ways to keep the battles interesting and engaging without a massive cast of extras, and there is an “avenger’s assemble” moment that occurs right before the return of Gandalf.
One creative liberty the show explores is exactly what the one ring tempts Frodo with, which is forestalling the decay of magic and the loss of the elves. Though as Frodo and Sam trudge through Mordor, Galadriel sings “Wonder” accepting that though Lothlorien will fade, new life will prevail which we see a glimpse of during the Epilogue. I highly recommend bringing tissues for the finale, as it’s as much of a tear jerker as its predecessors.
After the show, I took some time to explore Navy Pier, and caught up with a group of fans wearing bespoke Lord of the Rings shirts who had ventured from Utah to see the show. Some of their takeaways were that it was a great experience for anyone who had missed the original run, and that the new voices and incorporation of a band onstage really invigorated the score. I also had a quick chat with Will who expressed “I feel like I have the greatest job in the world because this role [Aragorn] is so iconic. Both in literature and in what was immortalized in the films, so it was a blast to revisit this work in such a unique presentation.”
Will James Jr. unveils Anduril as Aragorn. Photo credit: Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
As a whole, the Lord of the Rings musical is a must see that has familiar elements but the format brings in new twists in an experience you won’t want to miss.
This year, instead of a booth tour, we’re going to go on a tour of the things you could see at Comic-Con 2023 that were Middle-earth related. During this video, we stop at Jerry Vanderstelt’s booth to see the unveiling of Weta Workshop’s Master Collection piece as well as Jerry’s print that can be paired with it. We also stopped by the Diamond Select Booths to see the goodies both they and Weta Workshop had at this year’s show. We hope you enjoy the tour!
In our newest episode of the Collecting The Precious Podcast we sit down with Ben and new guest Ryan aka The Cyber Hobbit to talk about Comic-Con 2023. We chat about some recent releases and things we’d like to see come out during Comic-Con. As always, we hope you enjoy the episode!
So as you’re all aware, the MTG The Lord of the Rings cards are all the rage and getting fans excited as can be. Well, I am no stranger to this and have purchased a few things myself. In this first video, this newb will be opening up and going through my Food and Fellowship Commander deck. This is just the first MTG video you’ll see from Collecting The Precious. I’m addicted to the art of these cards, and will be getting more for sure.
Earlier this year we sat down with Leonard Ellis of Weta Workshop to talk about the process of creating Middle-earth collectibles. Leonard was very generous with his time and shared with us what it’s like to take something we saw on screen and then turn it into something, that we, as collectors, would love to purchase. We mainly focus on the process of dealing with different environments and items that are already available for purchase.
We hope you enjoy hearing all the wonderful information that Leonard shares with us during this episode.
Please note that there are occasional audio issues and we apologise for these.
I was blessed enough to receive a PC and PS5 key to test The Lord of the Rings: Gollum early on behalf of TheOneRing.net. My goal here is to describe my play-through scenarios, what type of system I run the game on, what I liked, what wasn’t for me, and ultimately… how much I actually enjoyed playing the game.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is developed by Daedalic Entertainment and is also published by them as well as Nacon. The game is available or will be available on multiple platforms such as Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and PC. You will need to make sure your system is compatible and the game has released on it in order to play.
PC experience and PS5 performance experience
I play on a fairly high end gaming PC that was built about two years ago for over $2,000 USD. I also played the game on my PlayStation 5. Right off the bat I do have to tell you folks that while the game ran well for me on PC and I didn’t encounter many bugs or anything game breaking, this was not my experience on PS5. And I prefer gaming on my PS5 as it’s hooked up to a 65-inch OLED television and surround sound speakers.
On my PS5 I was able to play the game over the weekend and all throughout the first chapter of the game I encountered crashes. I would interact with objects and crash. I would try to skip some of the story by holding down circle on the PS5 controller to avoid crashing and I would still crash. It would reset my progress a decent bit and I would have to complete the same objectives multiple times waiting for a time where it actually finishes and I get the credit for it. I was playing the game with the higher graphics setting on and when I switched to performance mode and turned off the Gollum hair animation/physics it fixed the majority of the issues I was having.
During the weekend we did receive an email update letting us know that the Gollum hair setting was the culprit and there would be a day one patch for the game to fix this before players started playing. This was great to hear. The rest of my play time went through Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 to completion. The only other bug I encountered was toward the end of Chapter 1 after a cutscene. Once it was done playing, I no longer had a cave or anything around me and any direction I chose to move Gollum I would fall about 1,000 feet to my death which did give me a chuckle. And it gave me an achievement!
Like an old-school Assassin’s Creed
The game plays like an old-school Assassin’s Creed with much less focus on combat. Gollum would rather knock an enemy over or choke them long enough to get away from them than try to actually fight most foes. You spend most of the game doing parkour, climbing over, crawling under and trying to remain unseen or undetected.
The buttons are easy to learn and I had no problems completing the tasks. There are items to collect on each map so sometimes you will want to play through multiple times if you are being a bit of a completionist. There are times where Gollum has dialogue choices. Sometimes the dialogue choices are in response to an NPC and other times it’s Gollum trying to convince his other half to do something.
I didn’t have time to find out, but I would love to know whether the story changes based on the decisions you make. If it does change parts of the story then I would probably play through each chapter to beat it, then to get all missing collectibles and achievements, and then again to make sure I got to experience the full story.
Present and past
On the story front, you see many characters, both friendly and foe, who you will know immediately. The game flashes back often, at least early on, between current day Gollum who is imprisoned for questioning, and the flashback Gollum who is sharing his side of the story of the events of what has happened to him during this period.
Fans of the books interested in playing the game will have a good idea of where the story intends to go immediately. Newer folks to the fandom might be taken on a nice joy ride where if this is an enjoyable experience for them they may find themselves more interested in picking up Tolkien’s books to see what is says in there, and understand where Daedalic had the freedom to tell their story.
I know some lore purists will have issues with different parts of the story but I am open to adaptations and I honestly do have fun when playing the game when its not crashing.
I am looking forward to the Day 1 patch to continue my playthrough. The crashes were very frustrating and I think most folks can understand that. When the game wasn’t crashing it was genuinely enjoyable for me.
That being said I know most people won’t read the full review. They just want a TL:DR and score, right?
In conclusion
TL:DR: The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is a fun game to me as a fan of the material that comes from Tolkien. I enjoyed playing the bits that I could play and while I am at work I do think about playing the game different ways when I get home. However, I did encounter one major bug and I experienced a series of major crashes early on related to a setting that I am told would be fixed on Day 1 of release. If that is the case I give the game a 7 out of 10.
When the game is playable I am definitely having fun. When it’s crashing I want to pull my hair out to match Gollum.
I would be buying this on day one regardless because I am a mark for all things Tolkien and Lord of the Rings but my advice to folks who are going to part with their hard-earned cash is wait for more reviews to come out after the day one patch and see if it fixed the issues that myself, and I am sure, others, will tell you about.
SCORE
When playable: 7/10
If the Day 1 patch doesn’t fix the crashing players might experience: 5/10
About the author: Varking Runesong is the lead mod of the LOTR On Prime sub-reddit and a writer for Fellowship of Fans. You can often find him on the TORn Discord!
This year, instead of a booth tour, we’re going to go on a tour of the things you could see at Comic-Con 2023 that were Middle-earth related. During this video, we stop at 
