Okay, I found this out about a year ago, but there was a legit Lord of the Rings musical. I'm talking live-stage acting, singing, dancing, the whole deal. How I discovered this was by accident. I was browsing Middle Earth related music and a song from the musical happened to play. I instantly fell in love with the song and searched for more and *poof* I became hopelessly enchanted with a musical I never saw.

Unfortunately, it stopped running in 2007 (or was it 2008) and get this: THEY NEVER RECORDED IT FOR DVD

Why?

I don't know, but they should have!

Fortunately, there are some clips on YouTube (including a lot of behind the scenes footage) and I was able to get the album for my birthday so at least I have the music.

Seriously though, I adore this musical. The music, the songs, I love it all!

Why?

I don't know, but I enjoy it!

This is my favorite song from the whole thing: Lothlorien

https://youtu.be/zeiugAnby4M

Can anyone guess which characters are singing in this song?

(Also this was the second song I heard from the musical, and when I first started listening to it I was writing at the same time so when random snippets of lyrics reached my ears I ended up taking the entire song out of context and was very confused because what I thought they were singing about and what they actually are singing about were two very different things.)

This was the first song I heard: Now and for Always

https://youtu.be/odazGzmf_7w

You can probably guess which two characters sing this song.

(I kid you not I loved this song after I heard it for the first time. I listened to it over and over again.)

And finally, I will provide pictures of the characters we all know and love as they are portrayed in the musical.

(Okay my laptop was going crazy so I had to switch to my tablet where I unfortunately, don't have all the pictures I was going to include. Sorry about that.)

Frodo (right) and Sam (left)

I don't know about you guys, but I love how the hobbits were portrayed in the musical. They're just like how Tolkien described them in the book! Short, round, curly hair, cheerful, hobbits!

The Fellowship of the Ring (and some random extras)

Okay I shall do my best to point out who is who in the circle of Fellowship starting with whoever I choose and going clockwise: Legolas (all the way to the left of the circle of Fellowship) Merry? (I can't really tell him or Pippin apart in this, the same thing happened when I watched the trilogy for the first time) Gandalf (he looks very short in this picture) Aragorn? (I'm pretty sure that's Aragorn, he and Boromir kinda look alike in this picture) Sam, Frodo, Gimli, Pippin and last but not least, Boromir?

Okay that might have been a bit confusing, it wouldn't have been if my dang laptop was working! Anywho, this is the scene where the Fellowship forms and possibly takes place during the song: Star of Eärendil

(Which is another wonderful song)

Again, I love how the Fellowship is portrayed in the musical. It's kinda hard to tell in this picture, but I have a few more for you all.

Arwen and Aragorn

I love her dress! She also has a nice singing voice. These two have a very nice duet together called Song of Hope

While I love that song as well (it's one of my favorites) if I had to give an award for best singing to the actor for Aragorn in the musical or the trilogy, I'd have to give it to Viggo Mortensen.

What? Viggo's singing is one of my favorite things about the LOTR trilogy.

Song of Hope is still nice though.

FORTH THE THREE HUNTERS

*cough*

Ahem: Legolas (far left) Gimli (middle) Aragorn (right)

Can we just take a moment to appreciate these costumes? I mean, LOOK AT THEM!!!!

Okay out of context though, this picture looks like Legolas and Aragorn are about to get into a fight and poor Gimli is just now realizing he's about to get caught in the middle of it.

Speaking of fighting, I actually saw a clip of the musical where Legolas and Gimli are throwing insults at each other (nothing new right?) when out of nowhere *BAM* Legolas attacks Gimli and Gandalf has to break them apart.

I don't know about you guys, but if Legolas had gotten in a fight with any of the other warriors in the Fellowship in the trilogy, I would have enjoyed his character much more.

Which brings me to the last picture:

Legolas

Why do I feel like this is a more accurate representation of Legolas from the books than the one from the trilogy?

I don't know, what do you guys think?

I mean, look:

Trilogy

Musical

Okay, that's it for my rant.

Let me know what y'all think of the LOTR Musical. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but hey, I love it!

Alright, I'm out.