THE ROAD TO THE RINGS: PART TWO Get ready for 'Canada's young Meryl Streep' In the casting process for Toronto's Lord of the Rings, one young woman in particular made jury jaws drop, MICHAEL POSNER writes
By MICHAEL POSNER Saturday, July 16, 2005 Page R5 Six months, and counting. More precisely, six months, two weeks and a couple of days is all the time that's left between now and Feb. 2, 2006, the date of the first preview performance of The Lord of the Rings, at Toronto's Princess of Wales Theatre. At $27-million, LOTR is the most ambitious and expensive musical production in theatre history. No one, therefore, is more conscious of time's winged chariot hurrying near than Kevin Wallace, the show's lead producer. Jetting back and forth between England, where the show's $1.2-million stage is being built, and Toronto, Wallace is himself lord of the show's many concentric rings -- all its creative and technological elements, as well as marketing and merchandising. Advertisements click here To his own considerable surprise, everything is so far on schedule. After two rounds of auditions, casting for the show's 55 roles (four more than he had originally budgeted) should be completed -- and announced -- by the end of July. David Mucci, associate producer David Mirvish's line producer, is now negotiating the contracts. The enormous 30-tonne, 14-metre circular stage, incorporating some 16 computer-controlled pneumatic lifts being built by Delstar Engineering in Britain, is just about done. Advance ticket sales have broken through the $8-million mark, surpassing Wallace's own projections. By opening night, March 23, 2006, he thinks it could hit $25-million, although more conservative estimates say a box office advance of between $15-million and $22-million is more likely. The principal focus of the last six weeks has been casting. Facing an intimidating lineup of eight jurors, scores of actors, singers, dancers and circus performers auditioned. They also had to pass boot camp -- a series of gruelling fitness and movement tests. Wallace was impressed by the country's level of theatrical talent. "I think it's an incredible cast," he said over dinner last week. "People are going to feel -- my goodness, I'm seeing all of these people in the same production. They're not used to seeing such a density of talent." One young woman in particular made their jaws drop. "I can't tell you her name just yet -- she'll be playing Arwen -- but every time she walked into the [audition] room, it lit up. The depth of technique was just stunning. She's like Canada's young Meryl Streep. Someone said, 'Does she know she's better than Bernadette Peters?' And the answer is she doesn't. But if she were in London, she'd be playing lead roles at the National Theatre." At the same time, he will likely - as per his agreement with Actors' Equity - use as many as five British actors in principal roles. Among the show's creative brain trust -- it includes director Matthew Warchus, choreographer Peter Darling and musical director Christopher Nightingale -- Wallace says there was a lively internal debate about casting the Hobbit roles and for the actors playing Gandalf and Saruman. As a matter of policy, Wallace says he never insists on hiring an actor the director does not want. "I'll try to see that my position is represented, but once you deal with the basic requirements of singing, dancing and acting, it comes down to chemistry and taste. In the end, Matthew [Warchus] has to go for it. You have to defer to the director, because you never have the same precise vision of how it should be played." The greatest surprise so far? "The level of physical expertise that Peter [Darling] was going to require. With some of our favourite actors, it wasn't that they weren't fit. But they weren't sufficiently in touch with their own bodies. They didn't have the finesse. To hire them would have been to put them at risk." Wallace was also struck by the ability of the women particularly to master the sound of Varttina, the Finnish folk group that co-wrote the show's score with Indian composer A. R. Rahman. "We'd arranged for Varttina to come over in October when we start rehearsal," he explained. "But these women could already deliver the sound. So we were really spoiled for choice here. There are no 'passengers.' These are Amazonian women. Whatever it is about the culture here, these actresses came in and just nailed it. There was a level of intensity and hunger that wasn't there in the male ensemble." On the technology front, Wallace in late June wrote a cheque for $400,000, the latest instalment on the $5.2-million he has budgeted for sets and props. "It's not a prototype, which is a relief to me. But we have 16 of these pneumatic lifts, the movements of which have to be programmed and co-ordinated." The overlay on the steel guts of the stage will be the 14-metre textured floor painted to resemble an ancient tree that's been cut down. Upon that stump the story takes place. Originally, the producers planned to use a more limited revolving stage for the start of rehearsals in late October. But they have now decided that even before the cast moves into the Princess of Wales, it should rehearse with the actual stage. Thus, it will be disassembled in Cambridge and shipped to a warehouse in Toronto for reassembly. Then it will have to be taken apart once again before being loaded into the actual theatre. Estimated extra cost: $250,000. "I think it's well spent," says Wallace, "because otherwise we'd find ourselves redoing sequences once we got into the theatre." The additional costs for stage and cast have pushed him, he says, to the limit of the show's projected $27-million budget. Fortunately, lead sponsor Air Canada, already committed to spend $3-million to promote the production, last month agreed to provide an additional $1.432-million in airline tickets, to accommodate the 50-odd Brits who are making heavy use of the transatlantic aviation lanes. To generate more buzz in the United States, a critical market, Wallace will be visiting New York, briefing journalists one-on-one. "I'll be surprised and disappointed if we're not a news item on the 24th of March. We must be." Wallace's co-producer Sol Zaentz is in pre-production for his next feature, Goya's Ghosts, set in Spain, directed by Milos Forman and starring Javier Bardem and Natalie Portman. But Zaentz is kept regularly informed about the show's development. Separately, Wallace has arranged for Tolkien scholars to verify the authenticity of every word of the script, including its nonsense portions; has commissioned a four-part TV documentary about LOTR's creation, which he hopes will be aired on Global early next year; has established what will soon be an interactive website to promote the show; and has signed a London based businessman to set up his merchandising operation. As much of it as possible, he says, will be sourced in Canada. "We're very conscious of being guests here. And the apparel will be high quality, something that will last. And while we're not the greenest show ever, there's a certain respect that needs to be paid to Tolkien, so the merchandise should be complementary to that ethos." While the Toronto show is coming together, Wallace is also planning for the London production, which will open either in December, 2006 or the spring of 2007 at the Dominion Theatre. After a presentation to U.K. ticket agents a month ago, one company offered to write a £1-million cheque to guarantee tickets for the first booking period. That, he said, was an enormous vote of confidence because Wallace and Co. are acutely aware that they must still persuade a world of skeptics that it is possible to stage Tolkien's sprawling trilogy. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050716/RING16/TPEntertainment/TopStories "We neglect our cities at our peril. For, in neglecting them, we neglect the nation." -John F. Kennedy This August, Discover the Birth of Your Independence and The Magic of A.R.Rahman's Music in Mangal Pandey - The Rising http://www.risingthefilm.com http://www.mangalpandeythefilm.com Music released: Jul 14, 2005 Movie releases: Aug 12, 2005 Explore, Experience, Enjoy A.R.Rahman - The Man, The Music, The Magic. Only at arrahmanfans - The definitive A.R.Rahman e-community. 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