May Be Hobbit Forming
Charles Ross basically has the best job in the world. The solo performer has been touring his One-Man Star Wars Trilogy since 2001, in which he plays all the characters of the original trilogy (fie on the prequels), sings the score, and tosses himself around the stage in a frenzy, encapsulating all three movies in about an hour. In 2004 he added a One-Man Lord of the Rings to his repertoire, based on the lengthy Peter Jackson film adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy trilogy, but he had to shelve it for years while the stage rights to the trilogy were tied up with a $25 million musical that went from Toronto in 2006 to the West End in 2007, where it ran for a year and was never heard of again. Whereas his Star Wars only required the go-ahead from one guy, George Lucas, getting permission to perform the One-Man Lord of the Rings again proved considerably more complicated. But now Ross’s 70-minute distillation of Jackson’s 11.5 hours of film is up and running again, and it’s playing through the weekend at San Jose Rep, which hosted his Star Wars show last summer.
