Reimagined 'Lord of the Rings' musical at Chicago Shakespeare Theater journeys anew into epic fantasy world

The first time a theater tried to stage a musical version of "The Lord of the Rings,” J.R.R. Tolkien’s expansive adventure into Middle Earth, things went explosively awry.

That 2006 production, staged at the 2,000-seat Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto, attempted to match the tremendous scope of the novels and films — with a cast of 65 actors, an estimated budget of $30 million and a daunting run time of three-and-a-half hours (with two intermissions). And while the effort was nominated for multiple awards, critics appeared largely unimpressed, with The New York Times calling the musical, “largely incomprehensible.”

Bigger was not better in the case of theater.

But in 2023, the respected regional Watermill Theatre in Berkshire, England, revived the musical idea. Watermill produced a scaled-down version, directed by joint CEO and artistic director Paul Hart, that featured a smaller cast of 20 and drastically reduced the lengthy run time.

Hart kept the musical score, composed by A.R. Rahman, Värttinä and Christopher Nightingale, but ditched a costly full orchestra in favor of actors playing instruments on stage. The show sold out its 12-week run. And this time, critics were on board, with The Guardian writing, “The creative team ought to be listed in a Guinness book of theatrical records,” specifically for cramming epic battle scenes and heroic treks onto the stage of the 220-seat theater.

Now Hart’s vision is coming to America for the first time, starting with a test run in Chicago. The Watermill is partnering with Chicago Shakespeare Theater to bring a yet-again-revamped version here, this time with a cast of mostly American actors, many of whom are based in Chicago.

Bringing the magic of an epic, fantasy cult-classic to stage without CGI, expansive landscapes or sweeping orchestral scores takes several tricks of the theater, Hart said, from dance and creative musical staging to complex battle choreography, large puppetry and holographic projections.

He starts with the way the story is told. He wanted to make an immediate, immersive connection with the audience, effectively making the people in the seats an ensemble member and making everyone hobbits — Tolkien’s fictional race of people about half the size of a human. As the characters on stage tell the story of Frodo Baggins, the famous hobbit at the center of Tolkien’s story who saves the world from evil, the fourth wall is broken and audience members become part of the journey along with Samwise, Merry and Pippin, the Hobbits that join Frodo on his quest to save the world.

“We're looking to go to the theater to experience something that's unlike any other medium,” said Hart, sitting in a conference room at Chicago Shakespeare during a break between tech rehearsals. “We are competing with Netflix, and we're competing with all of those other easier-to-access kinds of mediums. I think there was just something about the realness of connection to those characters that people hold so dear.”

Cast members liken this style to sitting around a campfire. Michael Kurowski, who plays Frodo’s best friend, Samwise Gamgee, said this setup removed the need for actors to have distinct sizes like the characters in Tolkien’s novels. “We're not going to have the elves on stilts, we're not going to have the hobbits on their knees,” said Kurowski. “It’s like we're all hobbits telling the story.”

Hart also leaned into live instrumentation. The original Toronto production featured as many musicians as actors, but the Watermill remake removed the orchestra entirely. Instead, actors also play the instruments, which could have complicated casting, but Hart trusted the talent in Chicago to make it work.

“Nearly all of them are from Chicago,” Hart said of his cast. “Which has been amazing, because they're incredible. And, they're not just acting. Most of them are playing instruments. If they're not playing instruments, they’re doing puppetry. If they're not doing puppetry, they are doing incredibly highly skilled dance. And a lot of the time they're doing more than one of those things at once.”

Michael McBride, the Chicago-based music director, said this is one of the most unusual experiences of any theater production at this scale.

“Yes, the actors play instruments throughout the entire show. So there is no additional band or orchestra. It is all created by the actors in front of your face.”

For the actors, that made the roles challenging and intriguing. Even those who have extensive music experience had to push themselves to play a score this complicated while acting.

“It’s a score meant for a huge, 60-piece orchestra,” said Kurowski, who previously played rock music live in the jukebox musical "Million Dollar Quartet." By comparison, he said, the music for "Lord of the Rings" is much more intricate. “And we're condensing it down to the 24 of us. So it's a huge undertaking. And nothing like anything I've ever done before.”

Chicago actor Ben Mathew, who plays Pippin, also plays the cello and must wear the large instrument strapped around his neck the entire time he’s on stage — even in battle scenes. In a creative reuse, his instrument’s bow becomes a weapon of war used to launch arrows at hordes of evil humanoid monsters known as orcs.

“It's one of the most remarkable things I've ever seen,” McBride said of watching the actor fight and dance while attached to a huge cello.

Eileen Doan, a violinist who plays Merry, said she had to learn to play the bouzouki — a stringed instrument used in folk music — in the second week of rehearsals for the production.

“I played the violin and the guitar and some percussion before,” Doan said. “But it's very similar to a mandolin or a guitar, so I was able to pick it up and it felt familiar.”

To bring more fantastical elements of the story to the stage, such as monsters and enormous spiders, the production relies on large-scale puppetry and holograms.

“The monsters are incredible,” Kurowski said. “And some people who've never done puppetry before are learning to be masters at this.” Shelob, the giant spider who stings Frodo toward the end of his journey in the novel, frightens cast members even when it is still. “I saw the spider in full light,” he said. “And I'm scared of it. It's awesome.”

Spencer Davis Milford, who plays Frodo, says the show manages to feel epic and personal at the same time.

“It's a Sondheim-esque score, with a 'Once' type of feel and the puppetry of 'The Lion King,'” he said. “I'm telling you. For anyone who loves a mega musical, but also something that feels intimate — I think we do a really amazing job of having that grand, epic scale, but really feeling like you're sitting around a campfire, and we're all telling the story together.”