I saw it in Toronto, so I can comment on these costumes in comparison to those.
In Toronto, they did not release images like this in advance, so it was hard to
get shots of the costumes other than what the media put out.
Aragorn had eye-black in Toronto too, but it was directly under his eyes, so it looked like he was wearing granny glasses.
![Shocked :shock:](./images/smilies/icon_eek.gif)
Here, they've moved it down and to the sides a bit. The elves had the eye paint that Legolas sports - Legolas had black, Galadriel had gold, and most of the other elves had silver. Seems they've kept that the same, more or less.
The hobbits are likely wearing the exact same costumes, seeing as how Frodo and Sam are the same actors
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
. Look the same, anyway. The two costumes that leap out as different are Treebeard and Galadriel. It might just have been lighting, but I don't recall the ents being so....green. They looked like guys with beards on stilts wearing non-descript brown trenchcoats - or ZZ Top on stilts.
And Galadriel...ummmm...okay.... I don't know what to say about her. I liked her outfit in Toronto. This one is a bit too....I dunno. As long as she sounds good, it's okay, but she looks like she should be holding one of those cigarette holders and saying "dahling" and such.
YouTube is blocked here at work, but I think this should have a shot of her in Toronto:
Rebecca Jackson Mendoza
It seems they have expanded her role in London, as well.
Boromir's outfit is the same, but in Toronto the actor was black. Gandalf looks much older here (Brent Carver is really too young to play Gandalf!) Aragorn and Arwen look pretty similar, though Aragorn's armor is different.
Legolas in Toronto
Gollum in Toronto
The Legolas they had in Toronto had a
wonderful singing voice - he sounded awesome! The actor who played Gollum was outstanding, and they've kept him for London.
First fan review I found:
I will give my review tomorrow - have to get to work .. but it was fantastic ... few very minor quibbles are quite unterstandable in context of the form. I thought it was an intelligent adaptation and the special effects showed that "smoke and mirrors" can be more effective than CGI..... the balrog aieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthread.php?p=518568
And a comment on the Toronto production:
The Lord of the Rings opens at the Princess of Wales. It cost $28 million. $27.9 million went to pay for Galadriel's hat. The rest went for the 17 elevators, leaving nothing for the book, music and lyrics. It showed. After it closes in September, Galadriel's Hat goes on sale on eBay and brings in enough to finance the London production. The Toronto Star
A collection of links