Chinese girls pass by a poster of'The Lord

of the Rings: The Return of the King' in front of a cinema in Chengdu,

capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, Friday, March 12, 2004. The

11-Oscar award winner was shown in China Friday.(Xinhua photo, Hai

Mingwei)

BEIJING, Mar. 16-- After setting cinema box office records around the world,"The Lord of the Rings" is to take to the stage as a musical.

The show, based on the fantasy-classic by J.R.R. Tolkien, is to open in March 2006 in Toronto and move to London six months later.

But the producers have promised to go back to the original tale of Middle Earth and not try to reproduce the dazzling special effects from the movie trilogy, which earned 3 billion dollar worldwide and garnered a string of Oscars.

Eager to quell the fears of devoted Tolkien purists who dreaded the classic being transformed into a showbiz extravaganza, he said there would be no singing and dancing Hobbits.

The music will be in a very traditional mold and draw on ethnic traditions.

(Source: CRIENGLISH.com)