Musical

A musical adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings (1954-55) sounds a lot like the set up for a Saturday Night Live comedy skit: tap dancing Orcs, perhaps; a plaintive song for Gollum to sing to the ‘precious’; chorus lines of hairy hobbit feet kicking in unison? Richard Wagner achieved the sublime with a grandiose tale of dwarves, dragons, and a magic golden band in his Der Ring des Nibelungen, so maybe it is possible. Sadly, after three seemingly interminable hours and a lot of questionable stagecraft, this version – too incompetent to be moving and not quite camp enough to be a hoot – is a slog worthy of a trip to Mordor. ... (read more)

Let’s be clear about one thing from the outset. Any resemblance between this Melbourne Theatre Company musical adaptation of My Brilliant Career and the Miles Franklin novel of the same name seems, as times, purely coincidental.

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