#now and for always was like the only song i actually liked jhgfsdfghj

[matsui-sinclair]

i saw the lotr musical on wednesday with my brothers!! i didn't know it even existed until like two weeks before we saw it (and didn't have any plans to see it until like two days before we saw it lol) but overall i had a good time!!

review under the cut bc i'm incapable of being concise :)

i knew beforehand that it was telling the whole trilogy in the one musical, so i was prepared somewhat for what the pace of the story would be, but for some reason i was still caught off guard whenever they skipped scenes and stuff - more so in the first act since it was less condensed than the second, and by the second act i was just along for the ride at that point yknow. i don't think it felt rushed necessarily, but my familiarity with the story made me take a second to get used to how they were telling it. i did laugh out loud in the first act when gandalf is captured by saruman and then the next time we see him he's completely fine and is just like 'oh yeah i escaped off stage don't even worry about it'

on the other hand, i think knowing the story beforehand probably helped me follow along with what was happening. my brother's girlfriend came with us and she hadn't seen the movies or read the books, and there were parts she was confused by - she didn't realise that when gollum got the ring at mount doom that he fell into the lava and died, she thought he got the ring and won lol. i will say that the ring getting destroyed was probably the moment that i felt the most let down by, and felt the most like it was rushed. it felt like it didn't have the emotional impact it should've had, unfortunately

i was also lowkey disappointed bc when boromir died i had a brief thought of 'omg they're gonna have the same actor who played boromir to play faramir that's gonna be sooooo cool' and after a second of thought i was like yeah there's no way faramir's gonna be in this lol. and lo and behold he was not. i understand they had to condense it like crazy but i was so sad they cut out faramir and eowyn and like half the shit merry and pippin did!! faramir and pippin are two of my favourite lotr characters 😔

ok but speaking of pippin, when i went he was played by natasha dumlao, which means that 3/4 of the main hobbits were asian!! i don't really have anything to add to that i just liked seeing asian people in lotr who weren't anonymous evil people from the east LMAO. but also seeing a filipino actor play my favourite hobbit felt very special to me personally 🥰

anyways!! my focus with lotr has usually mostly been on merry and pippin (and faramir) and like ofc i love sam and frodo but i think it took this musical for me to really latch onto their story. bc it cuts so much else out and makes them the main focus, i really like zeroed in on them for the first time, and was always itching for the story to cut back to them whenever the rest of the fellowship was on stage doing other plot stuff. rarmian newton and wern mak had incredible chemistry as frodo and sam!! i loved their interpretations of the characters and i wish i could see fan content of their versions!!!

anyways other miscellaneous stuff i liked:

i really liked the baylor/balrog/the thing that kills gandalf idk i haven't read the books and i can't remember what the movies called it. i thought it was a fun design :]

for some reason i liked that frodo had the same accent as the other hobbits?? idk accent names but i thought it was fun he wasn't talking in fancy british talk

i REALLY liked the costume design for the elves and the fact that they were colour coded according to which group they were lol

also really liked gimli's costume design and thought that conor morel's scottish accent was v good v pleasing to my ears

jeremi campese (merry!!). just love jeremi campese in general like i feel like i've seen him in 10 billion productions and he never misses but i especially loved seeing him play a cello that was the size of his body lol (also had no idea he could sing!! or play the cello for that matter)

stephanie caccamo (arwen) had the most beautiful fucking voice omg?? every time she sang it felt like i was ascending

SHELOB???

bro SHELOB????

NOW AND FOR ALWAYS!!! i've been listening to it on repeat for the past two days!!!! fuck!!!!!

the choreography in general but the choreography in the cat and the moon was so much fun!!

during the performance there was an INSANE fucking storm happening, so much so that my friends were talking about it the next day and my dad said he'd never seen a storm like it his whole life, and i didn't see any of it bc i was watching this fucking musical, BUT the thunder was so loud i legitimately thought it was just part of the play and was like 'wow really good sound design' until it kept going in parts that didn't make sense for there to be thunder and i realised it was just an actual storm outside jhgfdsfghjk

i'm adding this just bc my brother thought the opposite and it pissed me off but i like that it included the aftermath of the scouring of the shire at the end, i think it helped end the story on a really hopeful note and had a really good emotional impact to see life persevering!! and i don't think it was pointless at all, robert!!!

so yeah. after i saw it on wednesday i probably would have given it 3.5/5, i liked it well enough but still had some issues with it. but then. i just. couldn't stop fucking thinking abt it

(hence the playing of now and for always on repeat for the past two days)

the same exact thing happened with kingdom of the planet of the apes btw, i saw it and was like 'that was fine i guess :)' and then COULD NOT stop thinking about it, then saw it in cinemas six more times :/

so. hehe. i um. you know. on friday night, a whole two (2) days after seeing the musical, i, at one in the morning, impulsively bought a ticket to see it again (i guess i'm not trying to save money??) and i'm seeing it again on wednesday :) this time i'm gonna be in the stalls bc we were in the mezzanine and couldn't always see when the actors went into the crowd :(

but yeah sometimes something that you don't even think is like super mind blowing will just latch onto your brain. augh. i wanna rewatch the movies so bad but i'm waiting until after i watch the musical again

also no shade to hannah buckley i'm sure she's great as pippin but i really liked natasha dumlao and i hope she's playing him again when i see it this week! filipino pippin is actually something that can be so personal!!

i'm excited to see how/if my rating will change!!