LOTR musical a hit with preview audiences:
No matter that the first preview performance of Lord of the Rings -- at Toronto's Princess of Wales Theatre -- suffered a couple of technical glitches that forced the show to stop for 15 minutes or so. And no matter that, when the curtain finally fell on the $27-million musical adaptation of the classic Tolkien novels, nearly five hours (including 50 minutes worth of intermission, accompanied by drinks and snacks on the house) had elapsed.
Although there were a handful of walkouts when the clock neared 11 p.m., interviews with audience members conducted before, during and after the show -- the Globe and Mail was the only media organization invited to actually watch the show -- suggest that this epic production will go a long way toward satisfying the enormous appetite for the inhabitants of Middle Earth.
"It's a thing of great beauty," said entertainment lawyer Brian Wynn, after the show ended with a standing ovation. "But the world needs to know what the concept is. It's not a musical. It's not a Stratford production. It's somewhere in between. If you come expecting a new Les Miz or Oklahoma -- it's not. But I think they've pulled out the poetry and the themes better than the movies."
Sigh. I really need to stop checking my work email from home. I just got told I really shouldn't be helping out the NY staff with something in the evenings, even though 8 months ago I got criticized for not helping them out with the same thing.
Hey, congrats, Allyson! That's huge!
STOP CHECKING WORK EMAIL FROM HOME!
At least, when you're not supposed to be working. Working from home is a whole nother story.
We need to do this.
Word.
Writing up minutes from a meeting in which a set number of workplace principles were discussed is....a pain. Almost as bad as taking the notes in the first place.
So, the drama on the subway yesterday was a guy killing himself: [link] Sad.
That is awful. Ugh.
It was about this time last year that an acquaintence did the same thing at Davis, on the Red Line, though I think he was more immediately successful.
I figured that's what it was, when I heard a photographer asking if "they've brought the guy out yet," but still.
Allyson, your post made me grin like a loon. And get, possibly, a little verklempt. Which I probably effed the spelling of.
In my defense, I'm loopy from a mild cold, for which I can't take a darned thing but tylenol and vitamins. Tom Cruise would be so proud.
Brokeback Mountain star Jake Gyllenhaal is being touted as Gotham City district attorney Harvey Dent in the next Batman sequel, along with Paul Bettany, who may play the Joker. Gyllenhaal would play Gotham City's good-guy lawyer, who mutates into his alter-ego, Two-Face, in the third film
If my throat wasn't a touch on the sore side, I'd totally be making sounds only dogs can hear at the thought.
