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TORONTO
Move over, The Lion King. Another epic adaptation is nipping at your heels -- one even longer and more commercially extravagant.
In fact, when the new stage version of The Lord of the Rings opens Thursday at the Princess of Wales Theatre, it will become the most expensive theater project on record, having cost $23.2 million. But veteran producer Kevin Wallace would rather you not focus on the price tag.
"I'm skeptical of people being impressed by the money," Wallace says. "It is The Lord of the Rings, which meant that there would have to be a great deal of research and development before we even went into a rehearsal room."
Granted, Rings, which runs about 3 1/2 hours with two intermissions, doesn't stint on the scenery, costumes or special effects. But there is an abundance of natural imagery in the show, which Wallace and director Matthew Warchus point out was based on J.R.R. Tolkien's original books rather than Peter Jackson's films.
"We tried to use the technology kind of like a turbo-engine that kicks in from time to time," Warchus says. "But the style of the production had to be more organic, human, always referring to the natural world."
Warchus and Wallace describe Rings as less a traditional musical than a hybrid piece, with a book by playwright Shaun McKenna and music by Bollywood and musical theater composer A.R. Rahman (Bombay Dreams) and the Finnish folk-pop group Varttina. "It is rather different from anything else," Warchus says.
And more financially daunting, he might add. Wallace already has plans for a London production of Rings, likely in the spring of 2007, and has started discussions in Europe and Japan. But the producer has estimated that a Broadway budget could run $30 million.
"That would be twice as much as most," Wallace says. "So it's very important before we go near Broadway that we have sent lots of ambassadors. This is a unique piece, and the audiences and media are going to have to articulate on our behalf what the experience is like."
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