Music from the epic stage adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings will premiere at WTM’s opening ceremony on November 14 at ExCeL London.
The production, set to become a worldwide smash hit and the biggest and most ambitious theatrical event ever staged, opens at The Princess of Wales Theatre, Toronto on March 23, 2006, with previews from February 2, next year.
A selection from the score by India’s most popular composer AR Rahman and the renowned Finnish group Värttinä, collaborating with Christopher Nightingale – with lyrics by Shaun McKenna and Matthew Warchus – will be heard for the first time in public at ExCeL.
“This is going to be an opening ceremony like no other,” said Fiona Jeffery, group exhibition director, “creating a totally different and dramatic effect and with a common thread running throughout the whole ceremony.”
The opening ceremony at the World Stage attended by government ministers, ambassadors, international industry association heads and other VIPs will also be seen by exhibitors and visitors. The ceremony on the stage, in the heart of the exhibition halls, will also be broadcast on giant screens in the boulevard.
The Lord of The Rings book trilogy has sold in excess of 200 million copies. The international creative team, led by critically acclaimed director Matthew Warchus, award-winning designer Rob Howell and celebrated choreographer Peter Darling, has combined all three books into one unmissable theatrical event featuring a cast of 70 actors, singers and musicians.
Warchus said: “To read the novel is to experience the events of Middle Earth in the mind’s eye; to watch the films is to view Middle-earth through a giant window. Only in the theatre are we actually plunged into the events as they happen. The environment surrounds us. We participate. We are in Middle Earth.”
“The Lord of the Rings has captured the imagination of the City and Provincial governments of Toronto and Ontario which have, through Tourism Toronto and OTMP respectively, along with Air Canada, our Canadian corporate partners – and our Canadian associate producers David & Ed Mirvish and Michael Cohl – created the ideal platform from which we can launch our production to the world” said The Lord of The Rings producer, Kevin Wallace.
“Theatre enhances the experience enjoyed by travellers to many destinations across the world, from Toronto to London to New York to Hamburg. We are grateful to WTM for celebrating the partnership of theatre and tourism by inviting The Lord of The Rings to participate in the WTM’s opening ceremony,” added Wallace.
The event is coordinated in conjunction with London-based entertainment advertising agency Dewynters. “Dewynters will be working with tour operators and travel agents from key markets around the world to highlight the fantastic opportunity of combining one of the world’s most vibrant cities with the biggest and most ambitious theatre production the world has seen. From the top of the world’s tallest freestanding structure to the depths of Middle Earth, from 2006 Toronto will offer visitors a unique experience,” said Jonathan Mountford of Dewynters.