Massive £25m Rings Musical To Hit West End

The stage adaptation of Lord of the Rings, which debuted this spring in Toronto, is coming to London in June 2007. “The show promises to be a spectacle on a big scale with a cost to match – £25m. It will have a cast of more than 50 actors and about 90 musicians and crew. Seventeen hydraulic lifts will be used underneath the huge stage… [The] announcement comes against a backdrop of change in the industry. The budgets for theatre productions are getting bigger for an obvious reason – audiences want spectacle if they are paying up to £60 for a ticket.”