'Lord of the Rings' musical will be the West End's costliest yet

The Lord of the Rings is to be adapted into the most lavish musical production yet staged in the West End, with a budget of £8m.

J R R Tolkien's fantasy epic, shown in its film version as three feature-length movies, is to be condensed into a three-hour show for the London stage.

The project is backed by Saul Zaentz, the film producer responsible for One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, The Unbearable Lightness of Being and The English Patient.

Producers of the musical are looking for a 2,000-seat theatre to stage the production, which is scheduled to open in the spring of 2005.

The £8m budget will make it the most expensive show staged in Britain, ahead of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which is believed to have cost about £6.5m.

It will be the first major stage musical adaptation of The Lord of the Rings and the premiere is intended to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the publication of the trilogy.

Kevin Wallace, the producer, began working on the project two years ago, before the first part of the epic was shown as a film.

Wallace said: "This will be nothing like the West End has seen before. We are setting out to re-create Tolkien's fantasy world on the stage and it will have a real sense of wonder and awe for the audience.

"To do justice to The Lord of the Rings you have to pull out all the stops."

Wallace, who has produced a succession of Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals, including Whistle Down the Wind, Jesus Christ Superstar and Sunset Boulevard, persuaded Zaentz that the musical would be true to Tolkien's masterpiece.

Zaentz has owned the underlying rights to film and stage productions of the book since the 1970s. The American producer was awarded an Academy Fellowship at the Bafta awards in Leicester Square in February.

He used the awards ceremony to criticise President George Bush. He said that he was a member of the majority of American voters who were not recognised in the presidential election, adding: "We are now seeing in America the possibility of an absolute government by the few for the betterment of the few. This is to be reached in any manner."

Wallace said: "If you think about the integrity of the films that he's made you can tell that the quality of the work comes first with Saul and he is a fiercely independent producer outside the mainstream of Hollywood."

At a series of meetings in California, Wallace persuaded Zaentz that the project had merit and the musical was given the go-ahead in January.

Since then, Wallace has secured the services of Matthew Warchus, director of other West End musicals including Our House.

Rob Howell, who recently designed the West End set for The Graduate, will have the task of creating the stage version of Middle Earth.

Wallace pointed out that theatre had been "producing epics since time immemorial", from the Greek plays to Shakespeare's Henry IV and Henry V.

He also cited The Lion King as a recent musical production that had successfully brought "the essence of Africa" to the London stage.

Wallace said that the musical version of The Lord of the Rings would appeal equally to those who had come to the trilogy through the films or the original text. "We have been very faithful to Tolkien in slightly less than three hours, including the interval," he said.

All the important features of the book in terms of the characters and key events would be present on the stage, he said.

A nationwide search will be conducted for an actor to play young hobbit Frodo Baggins, played in the films by Elijah Wood.

Wallace said: "There are so many great roles in The Lord of The Rings but I think Frodo will be the most important.

"We will search far and wide to find our Frodo."

Tolkien joins the West End big league

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Showing at the Palladium Theatre with a budget of about £6.5m, it opened just over a year ago and has been a resounding success. Among its many special effects, the spectacular production features a scene in which the famous car "flies" across the stage.

Mamma Mia!

The Abba musical arrived in the West End in 1999 and has toured around the world. Named after one of the Swedish group's 22 hit tunes, it is an extravagant production with a budget of about £6.5m. The set and costumes have been described as "hideous" and "ugly" but the show is undoubtedly a sing-along success.

Notre Dame De Paris

First shown in Paris in 1998, it opened at London's Dominion Theatre with a spectacular launch party costing hundreds of thousands of pounds. Based on Victor Hugo's classic tale of the hunchback Quasimodo, the big-budget musical was similarly ill-fated, closing in 2001 after a run of 16 months.

Chicago

Originally running in Broadway in the Seventies (coming to London for 18 months), Chicago was much more of a hit the second time around. Showing at the Adelphi, it is in its sixth year and still playing to nearly full houses. Inspired the Oscar-winning movie, starring Catherine Zeta Jones.

Bombay Dreams

A celebration of Bollywood movies, based on an original idea by Shekhar Kapur and Andrew Lloyd Webber. The show at the Apollo Victoria Theatre divided the critics but has been loved by the public.