The Lord of the Rings: A Musical Tale // Watermill 2023
based on the books by JRR Tolkien
book and lyrics by Shaun McKenna and Matthew Warchus
music by AR Rahman, Värttinä and Christopher Nightingale
director: Paul Hart
musical supervisor and orchestrations: Mark Aspinall
choreographer: Anjali Mehra
lighting designer: Rory Beaton
projection designer: George Reeve
sound designer: Adam Fisher
puppet designer: Charlie Tymms
puppetry director: Ashleigh Cheadle
photographer: Pamela Raith
★★★★★ “Extraordinary. Set and costume design, lighting, sound and projection, choreography, puppetry and fight direction work seamlessly and with wondrous imagination to tell the sweeping tale in little more than three hours. Designer Simon Kenny’s indoor set is breathtaking.” What’s On Stage
★★★★ “The greatest show on Middle-earth. Simon Kenny’s design and Anjali Mehra’s choreography are a theatrical equivalent of stunts designed to find how many people can fit in a Mini. The creative team out to be listed in a Guinness book of theatrical records.” The Guardian
★★★★ “Beautiful, lavish and enchantingly intimate. A luscious staging…harnessing our imaginations in the storytelling, without short-changing us on splendour.” The Telegraph
★★★★ “Gorgeous aesthetics…precious moments of magic. Simon Kenny’s set blends seamlessly into the building itself. A great knothole in the wooden wall doubles as the dark lord Sauron’s all-seeing eye, and in one arresting sequence, a glittering mandala descends from above, its shape repeatedly reconfigured to suggest a blazing sun, a blooming flower or a vast gold ring.” The Stage