Lord of the Rings - The Musical

Yesterday I finally redeemed my last Christmas present -- tickets to the Lord of the Rings musical. I have to admit that going into it I was concerned because of the mediocre reviews by worldwide theatre critics and the fact that it opened at a staggering 4 hours and 45 minutes in length. Needless to say, after many growing pains over the past few months, the show is only 3 hours long and a pretty awesome adaptation for such an epic story.
I think that to be satisfied with it you have to go in with an open mind, a good knowledge of the story and a willingness to let details slide, meaning that you should know and accept that a 3 book epic can't be adapted to the stage without some trimming. But regardless of what was cut or kept, the sets, music, and costumes were great. I never felt that dreaded theatre restlessness -- you know, where about halfway through the play your eyes start to glaze, the mind wanders, the head starts to droop and suddenly you've lost five minutes of dialogue. I blame those symptoms on the fact that theatres are dark and cool, basically the perfect environment for curling into your jacket and sleeping.
Anyhow, I didn't find the Lord of the Rings disappointing at all, in fact, I found it quite enthralling and I would recommend it to anyone who wanted to go see some musical theatre in this town -- we're having a bit of a drought otherwise.
The only downfall I could see about the show was that theatre souvenirs (t-shirts, propaganda, etc.) was ridiculously expensive. I can't justify $50 for a t-shirt that's not very good quality, or $65 for a gold plated replica of the "one true ring".
I guess that is the major downfall of being one of the most expensive theatre productions in history... you've got to take it to the theatre patron to make up your costs.

Oh and on the way home, we saw Christopher Plummer cross the street in front of our car. I resisted all temptation to roll down the window and yell out something ridiculous like "I love you, Captain von Trapp". He probably would have decked me.