Mixed reviews for 'Lord of the Rings' musical
The $28-million Lord of the Rings musical, which opened in Toronto Thursday night, earned praise from one important audience member – the granddaughter of author J.R.R. Tolkien.
"It’s very beautifully done," said Rachel Tolkien, 35, who ventured from France to attend the show’s debut at the Princess of Wales theatre. "Everything that, to me, is the most important and most moving in the books is on the stage."
The three-and-a-half hour show, with two short intermissions, got a long standing ovation as the cast of almost 60, the producers, composers and British director Matthew Warchus took their bows.
The show’s technical wizardry — with 17 movable elevators — got a big thumbs up from many critics but many of them gave the show a tepid review.
"Why we’re left bored of the Rings" was the headline in Friday’s Toronto Star. While reviewer Richard Ouzounian praised the "endless visuals" and special effects, he said the actors wind up like "pawns in a giant rapid-fire chess game."
Ouzounian criticized the show’s director for leaving the audience with a show that was neither a play nor a musical. So much is packed into it, that character development suffers, he said.
Like many critics, he praised actor Michael Therriault — who recently played Tommy Douglas on CBC’s biopic and also starred in The Producers as Leo Bloom — for his gripping scenes as Gollum.
Charles Spencer of The Telegraph in Britain characterized the show as "weary" and concluded there was "nothing here to rival the imaginative visual coups and heart-tugging emotion of such great family shows as Billy Elliot, The Lion King and Mary Poppins."
The music, a mixture of folk, mystic sounds and eastern chants composed by Finland’s Värttinä and India’s A.R. Rahman, was engaging, Spencer said. But key moments, such as fight scenes, were lacklustre, he wrote, saying "jaw-dropping coups de théâtre are in short supply."
Spencer also wondered why Canadian stage and film veteran Brent Carver seemed to lack the charisma needed to bring the wizard Gandalf to life.
The Associated Press critic called Carver’s Gandalf a "washed-out wizard" and concluded the musical was a flattened adaptation of the trilogy with "moments of satisfying spectacle and elegant design."
Brent Brantley of the New York Times said he felt lost while watching the show, deeming it "incomprehensible." It felt like a very long high school drill team competition, he said. He was less than engaged with the music which he termed "Enya meets ashram."
Brantley extolled the talents of the "scenery-chewing" Therriault as Gollum and Evan Buliung as Aragorn.
The Lord of the Rings is playing at Toronto's Princess of Wales Theatre.
Heist thriller has "Inside" track at box office
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster and Clive Owen should pull an "Inside" job at the weekend box office with their new thriller.
"Inside Man," a heist film that turns into a cat-and-mouse game between a bank robber and a veteran police detective, will enter the fray Friday, along with two films that were not screened in advance for critics, the comedy "Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector" and the horror "Stay Alive."
"V for Vendetta" captured the top spot last weekend with a debut of $25.6 million and has reaped respectable midweek grosses. Warner Bros.' R-rated sci-fi actioner looks likely to fall to second place this weekend.
Universal's R-rated "Inside Man" has garnered mostly positive reviews, and is tracking best with the over-25 crowd and is extremely strong with black audiences, particularly females.
Washington was most recently in theaters with "The Manchurian Candidate," which opened with $20 million in the summer of 2004, while Foster's "Flightplan" took off with $25 million last August.
The opening haul for "Inside Man" should set a new high for its director, Spike Lee, whose best debut to date is "The Original Kings of Comedy" with $11.1 million in 2000.
Lionsgate's "Larry the Cable Guy" most likely will vie for the No. 3 spot with Paramount's former champ "Failure to Launch" and Disney's "The Shaggy Dog," both entering their third weekends.
Based on the blue-collar comedy of Larry the Cable Guy, the PG-13 comedy revolves around a veteran health inspector saddled with a rookie. Its appeal is tracking largely to young males and fans of the comedian.
"Failure to Launch" was off a moderate 36% last weekend, and has been generating solid midweek business; it had picked up $52.8 million through Wednesday. "Shaggy" shed a mere 18% of its audience, and had gleaned $38 million through Wednesday.
Disney's "Stay Alive," a PG-13 tale about a group of young friends in New Orleans who find a killer video game, is aimed at teens and fans of the genre. It stars Frankie Muniz, Samaire Armstrong, Sophia Bush, Jon Foster and Adam Goldberg. According to prerelease tracking, it won't make the top five.
In the limited-release arena, IFC Films' "Lonesome Jim" opens in New York. The R-rated comedy-drama, starring Liv Tyler and Casey Affleck, was directed by Steve Buscemi.
Sony Pictures Classics' "The Child" (L'Enfant) debuts in Los Angeles and New York. The drama, winner of the 2005 Palme d'Or at Cannes, was directed by Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne. The R-rated French-language film centers on a young man who sells his newborn son because he needs the money but realizes the horrendous mistake and tries to get him back.