Laura Michelle Kelly to Join London Lord of the Rings
By John Nathan
19 Dec 2006
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Laura Michelle Kelly
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| photo by Aubrey Reuben | Laura Michelle Kelly, who won a 2005 Olivier for her title role performance in Mary Poppins, will join the cast of Lord of the Rings when the musical spectacular opens at London’s Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on June 19, 2007.
Kelly will play Galadriel, the character played by Cate Blanchett in the movie versions. Kelly joins British actor James Loye who, as previously announced, will reprise his Toronto performance as Frodo Baggins.
The J.R.R. Tolkien-inspired musical received its premiere at Toronto’s 2,000-seat Princess of Wales Theatre on March 23. Matthew Warchus’ $27 million (Canadian), three-act production is the first stage adaptation of the literary epic and follows the hugely successful film trilogy.
The London version arrives two years after the 2005 70th anniversary of Tolkien starting the trilogy, and the 50th anniversary since the works — “The Fellowship of the Ring,” “The Two Towers” and “The Return of the King” — were published.
Book and lyrics are by Shaun McKenna and Warchus, with music supplied by A.R. Rahman and Finnish band Värttinä with Christopher Nightingale. The show is choreographed by Peter Darling with set and costume design by Rob Howell.
While Peter Jackson’s movie version of the trilogy amounted to nine hours of cinema, the London version will, it is thought, run at less than three hours — considerably shorter than the three-hour, forty-minute Toronto version.
In the meantime, Warchus has also been confirmed as director for a revival of Marc Camoletti’s 1960s farce Boeing - Boeing, about a Paris-based playboy with three airhostess lovers. The 1965 film version starred Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis. Warchus’s production, which stars Roger Allam, Mark Rylance and Francis de la Tour, opens at the Comedy Theatre on Feb. 15 following previews from Feb. 3.
For more on Lord of the Rings, call (0)870 890 6002.
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