There and back again: Lord of the Rings - A Musical Tale will stage its New Zealand debut in November. US Correspondent Logan Church took a break from American politics and journeyed back to Middle-earth during the production's run in Chicago.
In a theatre in central Chicago, a pair of Hobbits are getting ready to start an epic adventure.
Frodo and Sam, alongside a fellowship made up of all the races of Middle-earth, have one goal — destroy the one ring.
A theatre company in Chicago also has one goal: to take that story, put it on stage, and make it a musical.
"I think that's the great challenge, and that's what appealed to me; that it seems like an impossible thing to do," said director Paul Hart.
Actor Tom Amandes, who plays Gandalf, concurred.
"It's really audacious in many ways to take three books and do it all in one evening with a bunch of songs."
I'm told Chicago is a city full of theatre — about 200 theatres. The urban area is home to more than 2.6 million people, with millions more living in the surrounding suburbs and towns.
Ask anyone who works in this space, and they will tell you the Chicago theatre scene is only eclipsed by the bright lights of Broadway in New York — but putting on a show there is often prohibitively expensive.
And that's why so many productions start in and grow out of Chicago.
The theatre where the Lord of the Rings musical is staged also gave birth to hit productions like Six and the Notebook musical — both enjoying successful Broadway runs down the road from my apartment in New York.
Every member of the cast, crew and production team I spoke to was acutely aware they can't stuff up this production — if anything, because we New Zealanders, who jealously guard our status as the home of Middle-earth and take that role very seriously — would roast them to the extent that even the fires of Mount Doom would seem cold by comparison.
Kiwis will get the chance to see it later this year when the show leaves Chicago and plays for several weeks at the Civic in Auckland in November.
Perhaps that's why Hart humoured me when I asked if there was room for me to play something — even if just a lowly Orc or Orc understudy, as I suggested.
"We have a very small number of Orcs when you think we have to create an entire army, so always happy to have another out the back," he said, grinning.
I'm deciding that was a thumbs up.
But all the actors knew how crucial it was to nail their roles.
"We're ready for the expectations. I think our cast encompasses the heart of The Lord of the Rings," said Spencer Davis Milford, who plays Frodo.
While I usually feel more at home analysing complex geopolitical events and American politics, giving theatre reviewing a go (drawing on my amateur performing experience from the bright lights of Palmerston North), stand-out performances included Tony Bozzuto, who played Gollum, an incredibly physically demanding role.
I was exhausted watching him scurry over the theatre and up and down ladders. He nailed staying true to what we would all expect from Gollum while adapting it for this production and unexpectedly providing some comic relief. Gollum's musical solo was a highlight performance.
What was also impressive was that there was no orchestra. The actors played the music on stage, using instruments including drums, guitar, French horn, trumpet, violin, and cello, which they carried around for a large portion of the show.
"It's unique in this version of the show; it's the actors who play the instruments — there is no additional orchestra elsewhere," said music director Michael McBride.
"Everything that you hear happens in front of your face."
Various cast members led the other musicians at different parts of the show. How they stayed in time and tune was beyond me, but they did it.
Puppetry was also prominent throughout the show — quite a novel way to portray the Black Riders on stage.
Something struck me, sitting in the theatre surrounded by hobbits and elves (some people down the aisle from me had gone to the effort of wearing prosthetic elf ears): Lord of the Rings is ultimately a story about perseverance in the face of adversity and the value of friendships, even as the world crumbles around you.
As I write this in the corner of Chicago's airport, talking to Americans who look at their country and the world with growing concern, Lord of the Rings seems a more important story than ever, despite being first published in 1954.
Anyway, I'm off to practice my Orc combat moves.
Sílo Anor bo men lín!
Lord of the Rings - A Musical Tale opens in November at Auckland's Civic Theatre.
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