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Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of The Worlds – live

I was fortunate to see Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds on its first live tour in Birmingham last night.

The musical masterpiece, the closest adaptation so far of the original HG Wells novel has, amazingly, never been performed live in its entirity before this tour. I’ve always been a fan of the original recording, featuring the voices of David Essex, Justin Hayward (ex Moody Blues), Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy) and Richard Burton as the journalist/narrator. The music, a combination of classical and synthesised sounds, still sounds as fresh today as it ever has.

So how does it come across as a live performance?

It is difficult to pre-empt what to expect for a show like this. Is it a classical concert? a rock concert? or a combination of the two?

I think the best way to describe it is to say that it is a multimedia experience. The Orchestra, band and Wayne (conducting) are on stage, as are the singers who perform the vocal numbers. Large video screens form the background, adding visuals to the show, including 3D graphics along with the original artwork from the album and video footage.

Also, suspended above the stage is a head, onto which the computer-generated image of Richard Burton is projected. Wayne comments in the programme that while an actor could have been used to replace Burton’s part in the performance, the late welshman’s booming voice is so synonymous with The War of The Worlds, no actor could live up to the expectations.

Completing the stage is a Martian Fighting Machine, complete with ‘heat ray’ and eye camera.

Justin Hayward reprises his role as ’sung thoughts of the journalist’, and is joined by Russell Watson as Parson Nathaniel, Alexis James as the Artilleryman,Chris Thompson as ‘The Voice of Humanity’ and Irish singer Tara Blaise as Beth, the Parson’s wife.

The overall effect is fantastic, with the live performances complimenting the CGI and music, and making the show more engrossing than it would have been with simply an orchestra and performers, or an orchestra and the video screens.

However, Justin Hayward, once an idol to many teens, is now an old man. His voice certainally isn’t up to the standard it was when recording the original album, and he struggles in certain places. His performance was lacklustre too, simply walking around the stage. Wheras the other performers were acting as well as singing (James’ naive artilleryman and Watson’s doubt-ridden, and slightly mad priest being the standout performances), Hayward’s wandering around the stage gave the impression that he didn’t want to be there. Granted, as the journalist’s inner thoughts, perhaps he shouldn’t be running around the stage, but if he injected a litte amount of emotion into ‘Forever Autumn’, then we might be convinced that the journalist belived that he’d lost his fiancee. In the programme, Wanye comments that the original tests of the ‘Richard Burton’ head were unsuccessful as he appeared too old to play the mid-twenties/early thirties journalist of Wells’ novel. Perhaps in this case, a younger actor could have been used to replace Hayward.

The other little niggle was the unnecessary prologue. Those who have played the computer game based on the album will recognise this as the ‘martian prologue’, where the martians justify their invasion of Earth. However, having them explain their plan (in english!) is a bit superflous, and makes the show lose a little of the impact of Burton’s opening words: “No-one would have believed…”

The computer imagery on the head was passable, if a little expressionless. Aside from the odd eyebrow raise, and blink, the mouth was the only part that moved.

That aside, the rest of the show was incredible. The music remained pretty much unchanged from the album, a few minor flourishes aside, but played LOUD, the way it should be. The Sound Engineers took their time in building the volume up (perhaps to allow our ears to adjust), so The Eve of the War was perhaps a little tamer than I was expecting, but by the time The Artilleryman and the Fighting Machine came on, the orchestra was thundering, combined with the CGI of the Martian Fighting machines destroying everything in their path gave real power to the attack.

‘Forever Autumn’, as I have already said was a little disappointing, but Thunder Child was rousing. Part of the problem with a show like this, is that it is neither a concert, nor theatre, and I don’t think the crowd knew whether to join in our not.

The Second half opened with a CGI animation of the Red Weed taking root on earth, growing and twisting, before zooming into a church, and Parson Nathaniel. The Duet “Sprit of Man” was, again an audio-visual treat, with Beth’s verses accompanied with positive, beautiful imagery, and Nathaniel’s with images of death and destruction.

Watson and Blaise’s voices complemented each other well, with Watson also indulging in a little overacting, at one point, posing in the iconic stance of Nathaniel trying to ward off the martians with his cross from the album. Having said that, hammy acting is better than none at all, and Watson at least creates a character you can believe is losing his faith and going slightly mad.

Alexis James shines as The Artilleryman. Perhaps as the only stage actor in the performance, he knows how to engange an audience. His performance as young, naive Artilleryman is spot on, and you are amused by his plans of building a ‘brave new world’, yet feel a twinge of sadness for him, especially when the journolist abandons him.

Because of the type of show it is, there was no prospect of an encore, although, typically, people were leaving before the concert finished, with the modern day epilogue including images taken recently by the mars rover robots.

The problem with this type of event (and with the british!) is how to behave. People began applauding the arrival of the orchestra (as you would in a concert hall) but then stopped (as you would if it was the backing band for a popular singer). In a smaller venue, people would join in with the singing (particularly with the ‘come on thunder child’ lines), but that would be rude at a concert.

Although this was a short tour, I believe that having tried the formula, and seeing that it works, Wayne will be considering taking the show on a larger tour, perhaps in 2008, marking the 30th anniversary of a piece of music that sounds as good as it ever did.