Hope you approve, director asks Tolkien at grave

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - The director of a revamped "The Lord of the Rings" musical went to J.R.R. Tolkien's grave to seek the author's posthumous blessing for staging the cult classic -- and he apologized in case the writer disapproved.

"That was a magical moment," director Matthew Warchus told reporters on Thursday when presenting to the press the 50-strong cast of what is being billed as the most expensive musical ever staged in London.

"I visited his grave in Oxford to apologize and get his seal of approval. I apologized in case he didn't like the idea of a stage show," the British director said.

The musical, extensively reworked and cut by 40 minutes after its world premiere in Toronto received some damning reviews, opens in London in June where it faces tough competition from a string of hit musicals.

As actors playing deadly orcs skipped, bounded and somersaulted across London's historic Theater Royal Drury Lane, Warchus called the three-hour spectacular "a mixture of Shakespeare and Cirque du Soleil."

The Toronto show, which took four years to bring to the stage, was applauded by critics for its gymnastic orcs and menacing dark riders but they confessed to getting lost in the tangled plots of Tolkien's Middle Earth.

So the producers went back to the drawing board.

"The differences are wholesale. I would call this a world premiere because it is so different," Warchus said. "The trouble in Toronto was that we were getting too much of the story on stage. Toronto was the stepping stone."

The show cost 12.5 million pounds ($23 million) to stage in Canada and another 12.5 million pounds to put on in London, producer Kevin Wallace said. "It is the most expensive musical ever staged in London's West End," he added.

London theatres enjoyed a record year in 2006, fueled by hit musicals like "The Sound of Music" and Monty Python's "Spamalot."

But Wallace was confident he could fill the 2,000-seat theater. "Thank God the West End is booming at the moment. It has had its best year ever. We want to contribute to that success."

Among the stars are Laura Michelle Kelly, who won an Olivier theater award for her stage portrayal of Mary Poppins and returns to play Galadriel. "After taking a year off, I realized I really missed being on stage," she said.