*** SPOILER ALERT for the LOTR musical ***
It's interesting to note that the Scouring of the Shire was in the stage musical in Toronto. Wormtongue was absent from this adaptation, so Saruman's henchman in this scene was Bill Ferney (who acted as his spy in Bree, like in the novel). I'm not sure how I feel about the inclusion of this scene -- I loved the fact that they had it, but looking at it objectively it might have been somewhat anti-climactic after all that had just happened (though I was upset at how weakly the destruction of the Ring was handled, such that there wasn't really much of a climax there either). You'd have to get an impartial viewer (i.e. someone who has never read the books nor seen the movies) to judge.
I'm also not sure how I feel about their decision to skip the seige of Gondor and battle at the Pellennor fields altogether and sort of merge that with the battle outside the Black Gate (and merge the Mouth of Sauron with the Witchking too; and yes, the Army of the Dead does fight at the Black Gate) -- if you've seen my abridged cut you'll know that I consider the battle at Helm's Deep far less important than the battle at Gondor, but it seems the playwrights felt the exact opposite. Oh well. Having Gandalf the White appear for the first time at Helm's Deep was an interesting decision that worked emotionally, but like lordjedi said, as with the movies, changes lead to other changes -- now that the three hunters have to arrive at Edoras without Gandalf, the catalyst for Theoden's awakening is -- guess what -- the shards of Narsil. Oh yeah -- Anduril wasn't forged until just before Aragorn goes to summon the Army of the Dead, like in the movies -- but since Aragorn had it with him all the while (how exactly does one fight while carrying the weight of a broken sword?!), how exactly does he get it forged? This is really puzzling -- if memory serves me rightly, after the victory at Helm's Deep (possibly after banishing Saruman), Gandalf presents the reforged blade to Aragorn, leaving me to wonder just when he had the time to reforge the sword.
The thing that really got on my nerves is this -- it's stated explicitly that when Gollum was held captive in Mordor, Sauron made him promise to find the Ring and give it to him (Sauron). He agrees to help Frodo because Frodo tells him that he will be free of his promise to Sauron if he helps Frodo. This is just wrong -- it changes his fixation on getting the Ring from actual addiction to the thing itself, to simply wanting to hold up his end of a bargain.
Shelob was simply stunning. The Khazad-Dum scene was a fantastic end to the first (of three) acts -- with the Balrog still hidden in shadow, smoke starts to fill not just the stage but the whole theater, and black confetti is blown into the audience, really drawing you into the scene. When the Balrog itself makes an appearance, to be honest, it's a little bit of a letdown (it looks basically like an enormous paper lantern), and Gandalf (or rather, the platform he's on) descends rather SLOWLY (soon FOLLOWED by the Balrog, who folds its wings and descends). I'm still puzzled over what the director intended by this -- if the intention was to have both Gandalf and the Balrog FALL, it was certainly far from convincing -- I'm more inclined to think that the scene represents the Balrog overcoming Gandalf before descending back into its fiery pit, though it's really unclear exactly what was supposed to have happened. The same with the destruction of the Ring -- Frodo and Gollum wrestle (Frodo doesn't put it on and disappear after claiming the Ring, or at least it wasn't depicted clearly), when Gollum manages to get the Ring, and (like in the book) jumps around shouting "My precious!", when he steps onto a platform that descends. Again, if he was supposed to be FALLING, it was the least convincing "fall" I've ever seen . . .
All in all, it's a very interesting take on LOTR and I recommend all fans to see it -- I know it got a lot of bad reviews, but I enjoyed it thorougly despite all its flaws, and I think that fans will be both its greatest supporters and detractors. It's a wonderful alternative visual interpretation to the movies (there were definitely elements that were influenced by the movies, but thankfully not too much).