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any kind of ‘children’s theatre’, but was willing to consent if an adaptation were ‘good of its kind’, or if the performance of the play were part of the normal processes of a drama school. He felt strongly, however, against the publication of such a work or its performance in a more public venue. Nevertheless, numerous versions of The Hobbit have been performed on stage, some with original songs.
In 1967 Paul Drayton, later director of music at New College School, Oxford, and Humphrey Carpenter, then an *Oxford undergraduate, with Tolkien’s permission adapted The Hobbit for performance by eleven- to thirteen-year-old boys. Their essay, ‘A Preparatory School Approach’ in Music Drama in Schools (1971), explains how Drayton devised the songs and overall musical structure for the play while Carpenter prepared the script with ‘two main principles in mind. First, to retain the style and character of the book, and second, to impose dramatic shape upon it. The first simply involved using the existing dialogue wherever possible, and consciously adopting Tolkien’s style when continuations and alterations had to be made.’ The second principle was to omit ‘incidents not absolutely vital to the plot – the trolls, the wolves, the eagles and Beorn. None of these occupy a strong place in the saga; they are trimmings, and easily disposed of.’ Carpenter also imposed ‘unity’ by introducing Bard earlier than Tolkien does, and by killing Smaug at the Lonely Mountain ‘in the centre of the action’; and he added references to *The Lord of the Rings ‘to extend the significance and importance of the ring in the play’ (p. 18). The dragon ‘flew overhead’ by means of lighting effects.
Tolkien attended the final performance. ‘He smiled a lot of the time’, Carpenter recalled, in particular at the boy who played Bilbo as a ‘fussy middle-aged bachelor’. But towards the end of the play, with notable departures from his book, Tolkien ‘did not approve of this tinkering with the story’ (‘“… One Expected Him To Go on a Lot Longer”: Humphrey Carpenter Remembers J.R.R. Tolkien’, Minas Tirith Evening-Star 9, no. 2 (January 1980), pp. 10–11; see also a report by Charles E. Noad of a talk by Humphrey Carpenter, Amon Hen 91 (May 1988), p. 14).
The scripts of a dramatization by Patricia Gray and of a musical by Allan Jay Friedman, David Rogers, and Ruth Perry were published in 1968 and 1972 respectively by the Dramatic Publishing Company of Chicago, ‘authorized by Professor J.R.R. Tolkien’. This imprimatur, however, was given only as part of a compromise between the publisher and George Allen & Unwin, at a time when the validity of the copyright of the first edition of The Hobbit in the United States, and therefore the ability to control or prevent dramatic adaptations, was seriously in question (see *Ace Books controversy, and further in the present entry). In fact, Tolkien disliked at least the version by Gray, and still less that he had little or no say in the matter. Through *Rayner Unwin he requested changes where the adapter had departed from the text without (as he felt) any dramatic necessity. Although the Dramatic Publishing Company held that they knew best what is needed for an effective stage play, they agreed to some of Tolkien’s requests, and Unwin felt that these repaired ‘a lot of the worst excesses and infelicities’ (letter to Tolkien, 19 June 1968, Tolkien–George Allen & Unwin archive, HarperCollins). On 20 June Unwin wrote to H.N. Swanson, the American agent for Allen & Unwin, that ‘neither Professor Tolkien nor I are concerned about the process of dramatization so long as it is a dramatization of the book in question and that intrusions from elsewhere conform to the spirit and style of the original’. Tolkien further agreed that ‘the publication is with his authorization … [but] he would not wish it to be said that the dramatization has his approval’ (George Allen & Unwin archive, University of Reading).
It is common in some dramatizations of The Hobbit for characters to be changed or added to provide more female roles: thus the Elvenking may become an elven queen, or Bilbo Baggins may gain a sister who appears in the final scene. More simply, Thorin the chief dwarf, or even Bilbo, may be played by a female. The ‘small cast version’ of The Hobbit dramatized by Markland Taylor (1992) is an adaptation for only six actors with much doubling (there are twenty-three characters): in this the dwarves are reduced to only Thorin, and the Battle of Five Armies is only mentioned in a comment to the audience. Rob Inglis took the reduction process even further with his version for single performer, recorded in 1987 on the fiftieth anniversary of The Hobbit.
At perhaps the furthest extreme of adaptation of The Hobbit on stage was Down in Middle Earth, a musical for children by Fred Bluth performed in California in spring 1969. Bonniejean Christensen described this as ‘a fuzzy allegory’ in which Bilbo undertakes a psychological quest to recover a stolen ring, accompanied by ‘hip’ talk, allusions to sexuality, and psychedelic lighting (‘Report from the West: Exploitation of The Hobbit’, Orcrist (1969–70), p. 15).
Other stage dramatizations of The Hobbit include those by the Oxford University Experimental Theatre Club, adapted by Graham Devlin, music by Michael Hinton (1971); Phoenix Arts, Leicester, adapted by Rony Robinson and Graham Watkins, music by Stephanie Nunn (1984); the Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis, adapted by Thomas W. Olson, music by Alan Shorter (1990); Company Skylark, adapted for puppets by Christine Anketell (1997); Manitoba Theatre for Young People, adapted by Kim Selody (1999); Vanessa Ford Productions, adapted by Glyn Robbins, music by Mark Bloxsidge (1999); and the Lansbury Players, London, adapted by Brian Sibley (2000).
An operatic version of The Hobbit was written by Dean Burry, originally for the Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus, scored for children’s chorus, adult baritone, and small chamber ensemble. This premiered in Toronto in 2004. Four years later, Burry prepared a revised version, with full orchestration, for the Sarasota (Florida) Youth Opera.
Stage adaptations of The Lord of the Rings date from at least 1960, with a production by Joyce Biddell of Maidstone, Kent. A lavish musical treatment of the work, employing sixty-five actors and a moving stage, was first produced in Toronto in 2006; its book and lyrics are by Shaun McKenna and Matthew Warchus, and its music by A.R. Rahman and Värttinä, collaborating with Christopher Nightingale. A reduced and rewritten version of the musical opened in London in 2007. As he did for The Hobbit, Rob Inglis has performed a one-man version of The Lord of the Rings, likewise much abbreviated.
A one-man stage adaptation of *Leaf by Niggle was produced in 2016 by the Puppet State Theatre Company of Edinburgh, performed by Richard Medrington with music by Karine Polwart.
RADIO ADAPTATIONS
In 1968 BBC Radio 4 broadcast The Hobbit dramatized in eight parts by Michael Kilgarriff with music by David Cain. This introduced a narrator, ‘The Tale Bearer’, who is often interrupted by Bilbo Baggins, and incorporated elements from The Lord of the Rings, such as a mention of Middle-earth though this name is not in The Hobbit as published. The adaptation was first issued as a commercial recording in 1988, based on private off-air tapes as the master tapes had been wiped. It was broadcast again on Radio 4 over four days in 1991.
The Lord of the Rings was first adapted for BBC radio in 1955–6, for the Third Programme, soon after its publication was complete. The producer Terence Tiller proposed an adaptation of its first part, The Fellowship of the Ring, on 25 January 1955, asking not only for Tolkien’s permission to proceed but also for preliminary suggestions from him, promising him the draft scripts for approval. Tolkien replied on 26 January:
I hope it will not seem too cool and cautious, if I ask whether you could (without much trouble) give me a general idea of what you have in mind as an ‘adaptation’, before I give my final approval.
For instance: do you propose to use actual parts or passages with summarized narrative links? The proposed time to be allotted is 4½ hours [45 minutes per episode]. The printed narrative, without preliminaries, occupies about 390 rather packed pages. …
Naturally he had ‘some views and preferences’; but ‘the “adapter” must, I think, work on his own lines. I should very much like to have some idea of what those are likely to be’ (BBC Written Archives Centre).
Tiller proposed to preserve Tolkien’s original dialogue as much as possible, which would be presented in a dramatic form with narration to link the scenes. Given time constraints,