A musical will ruin the story!

[RockerChik106]

Hi, I'm a newbie here and I think that a musical would just ruin the story! Why?:confused: I cannot picture ANY of the characters singing AND dancing! Its terrible! Thats just my opinion and sorry if you think it its a wonderful idea.

[hama1]

I can't see any of the characters dancing either...that is why I haven't written any music for dance or planned on any choreography. As for not being able to envision any of the characters singing my only question is..."Have you read any of the books?" Sorry that was kind of mean but there are over 150 pages of lyrics in LOTR. Somebody must be singing them!

[Taulëasawen]

Originally posted by hama1
As for not being able to envision any of the characters singing my only question is..."Have you read any of the books?" Sorry that was kind of mean but there are over 150 pages of lyrics in LOTR. Somebody must be singing them!


I think she meant Broadway-type singing......right?

[RockerChik106]

I wasn't really thinking when I put singing up there, but I mean musical-like singing......but I really wasn't thinking.:o

[hama1]

Well your post does say "singing AND dancing." Perhaps what you can't envision is exactly that and since there is no dancing no one will be singing AND dancing. However, if what you meant was singing OR dancing well that leads to the question of what you mean by musical-like singing. As there are hundreds of different styles of music written for the stage any of a number of types would be innapropriate for a musical such as the One Ring and any number of types might be innapropriate for a character such as Aragorn but perfectly appropriate for a character such as Sam.

Songs in a musical...or at least a well written musical are the logical consequence of a scene. When the power of the emotion or the importance of what a character is trying to communicate cannot be adequately communicated by spoken word the character sings. I would direct you to the lyrics page here at the sight and look at Aragorn's One More Tommorrow, Eowyn's With His Words or even Sam and Frodo's final duet as examples. I think they are entirely within character.

No one thought a musical about a convict in pre-revolutionary France would work. Les Miserables is closing after 13 years on Broadway.

[IluvSmeagol13]

omg-is lesmiz really closing????when?:eek:

[IluvSmeagol13]

i luv lesmiz*

[hama1]

Les Miz is closing in March. About 8 weeks from now I think. They are already doing High School productions of it. Apparently it is a somewhat scaled down "script" from the original.

[Beleg Strongbow]

I think that a musical would be geared more towards making money than the books, but it wouldn't ruin the story.

By the way, this is the 600th post in discussion of the musical!:eek:

It's really grown!

[hama1]

Well it certainly was my intention to make money on this project. Considering the time and energy I have put into it, that would seem only fair.

Hmmm....600th post! Can 1,000 be far away?

[Agburanar]

The age of the musicals may well and truly be over.

Starlight Express has closed :(
Cats has closed ;)
Les Mis is closing :(
Phantom of the opera is closing :(

And what new stuff do we get? Bombay Dreams?????

Please, Hama, bring on the One Ring musical and let's have something good out there again!

[hama1]

Agburanur,

I really need to get back to NYC and get the demo recording done...if only to have some audio files accessible here...I think that would add some real excitement to the site....and of counrse I need that to shop this thing to producers...

Brad

[Edro]

having a LOTR musical is a really really sick idea:mad:

[hama1]

I am torn as to whether or not I should dignify that post with a reply....hmmmm?????

Not.

[Aralyn]

I wish you luck with your musical but I probably won't go and see it. Don't take offense but like I've said before. For Middle earth to seem real to me I have to keep this image of it. A musical would kind of ruin it for me. But Luck anyhow.;)

[Galenavar]

Aralyn, did you see the movie? Did you like it? Just curious. I have this picture in my head as well, but I loved the movie and seeing someone else's picture of Middle Earth. I was wondering if you had liked it too.

[Aralyn]

Okay it's like forever since you asked but yeah the movie was good but in case of fire id grab the books first. Pure Tolkien is what I love.

[Galenavar]

Well, naturally! :D The books are quite often better than the movie, and in a fire I'd grab a book as well. I just enjoy seeing different forms of it is all. I loved the movie and think the musical will bring an interesting twist. :D

[Salquënòrëwen]

I won't neccisarily(sp?) ruin the story....it'll just be a bit...different. I'll definatly see it if I get the chance:D

[gimli7410]

is hama the one making it:confused:

[azalea]

He was, and the script is housed on the Tolkien Trail, but unfortunately they were unable to come up with enough money to back it for production. Now it turns out someone else is doing it.

[gimli7410]

oh where abouts do i go to look at the script on the site

[hama1]

no...unfortunately.

[hama1]

Gimli,

Go to the Tolkien Trail main page. The link to The One Ring is on the right hand side of the main page.

Hama

[gimli7410]

yea i just read the script and it looks pretty good. sorry about the financial problems:(

[LutraMage]

You ever play the old mime game where you begin: 'is it a book, or a film, or a play, or a song?' etc? Well, LoTR is just such a fantastic book, a real genuine ground breaking classic, so it is no surprise that it should be turned into a film, an animation and now a musical. The material is just too good for writers not to want to adapt it.

For me, it doesn't matter how good or bad what they do is, nor that I can't imagine the characters singing and dancing - the musical won't be 'the book' it will just be a musical based on the book. If its a good musical I'll enjoy it, if its poor, I won't bother to go see it. BUT IT WON'T REPLACE THE BOOK OR DAMAGE THE BOOK, in other words, it can't "ruin the story" because the story is already written and the worst they can do is make a bad musical. So I won't let what they do bother me too much - just like the film.

[hama1]

Gimli,

I just re-read the script...I hadn't looked at it in a while. I think the first scene sucks. I have written and rewritten it so many times that it seems very cut up and at times repetitive...after that I don't think it is too bad.

LutraMage,

I really like your point of view. You are right that LotR is a classic and will stand alone for the ages. It would be a shame if they made a bad musical (especially after I have written such a good one...:p ) However, I am curious about your comment that "you can't imagine the characters singing..." What do you imagine when you read passages in the books where the characters ARE singing?

Hama

[nessa]

Originally posted by hama1
I can't see any of the characters dancing either...that is why I haven't written any music for dance or planned on any choreography. As for not being able to envision any of the characters singing my only question is..."Have you read any of the books?" Sorry that was kind of mean but there are over 150 pages of lyrics in LOTR. Somebody must be singing them!

I thought, excuse me if I'm wrong, that they were mostly poems? JRR does not strike me as a dance hall entrepeneur?

Are you involved in bringing a musical to life? I have heard that someone was thinking of this. The movies have made enough of a mess! Please...!

[Galenavar]

:rolleyes:

Yes, they are poems, but then, most songs are poems. You can tell that they are songs because quite frequently Tolkein writes that someone is singing them.

And, yes, Hama was planning on doing a musical of LotR. Unfortunately, someone else beat him to it. The LotR musical is being worked on as we speak. Or so I assume, since the news came out a while back.

As for the movies and half a dozen other of my arguments, please read them in earlier posts and in the multiple other threads arguing over the movie and the musical. :)

[hectorberlioz]

I support the musical!:D go musical!

[Diamond]

I'm not completely against the idea of a LOTR musical, but you'll have to excuse my skepticism. Nothing is impossible, particularly where theatre is concerned, but pulling off a story that is loved by many millions of people in this sort of medium is going to take skill on the part of everyone involved down to the last stagehand. Everyone is going to have an opinion on it. You can't please everyone all the time.

If nothing else, it would be good for a giggle or two. :D

Liz

[Lumox]

To attempt to bring the LOTR to a broadway stage is perhaps the most contrived, naive, and foolish ideas I've ever run across, even within the broadness of the internet.

To begin with, and this is probably the only reason that needs be supplied here, LOTR is an epic tale which is both vast and complex. To bring it to the screen took over nine hours, and that was with plenty of cuts of it's own. The only way to ever fit the gigantic proportions of Tolkien's tale would be to trim it to bare bones, stripping it of all it's charms.

Not to mention that the stage is supposed to be a place where character and emotion is expressed, not where plot is unraveled. Tolkien's LOTR was not about character, but about people, and places, and deeds. It is also about subtlety. How do you expect to take over 1,000 pages of literature, put it in, at most, a 3 hour production, and keep all of that?

There are plenty more points I could argue, but the whole idea is so silly I don't even feel a need for it. In short, the LOTR was written as a book, with the intentions and ambitions of a book. If it were meant for the stage, it would have been written as a screenplay. But indeed it was not, and that should be the end of it once and for all.

P.S.- Hama, it is rather conceited of you to point out that there is over 100 pages of lyrics in LOTR, and then not include any of or even a hint of them in your own lyrics. It absolutely ruins the flavor of the tale.

[ethuiliel]

I don't think it's a bad idea. There were a lot of song and poems that could be sung in the story, and if they were the songs that were used I think it would be fine. It would be a different way of addapting the books than the movie was, but I don't think it will be bad.