The War of The Worlds is more spectacular than ever...

“I was asked to do a one off at the Albert Hall,” Wayne tells Access ahead of the latest run. “I’d done a couple of tracks with orchestras before, but never the full work. It sold out in two hours and the promoter came back to me with an idea for five or six arenas, but was very clear I’d have to rework the concert rendition into something much more spectacular. What they didn’t know was that I’d been working for about three years on something combining cutting edge technology with the live performance. They said, ‘If you can make it work, we’ll announce it.’ We ended up doing 15 shows.”

On stage, Wayne conducts the 10 piece ‘Black Smoke Band’ and the 36 strong ‘UllaDubUlla Strings’, drawn from the British Philharmonic, arranged to his left and right respectively, while vocalists make their entrances and exits between them. Behind, on a 100ft wide projection screen, animated CGI visuals bring the Martians, and their incendiary impact on London and the home counties, to life.

“Each production is a living work. H.G. Wells created such an amazing story, that has grown in so many people’s imaginations, we can’t go turning it into a cardboard cut out.”

Jeff Wayne

Extraterrestrial

A barrage of special effects has been built up over the tours. Among them, an 11ft photoreal holographic projection of Burton that looms large over the stage to deliver his sections of narrative, and a ‘levitation’ illusion added last time out, superseding what was previously a metaphorical expression of a central character rising to the spirit world. This year a new pre-show brings a meteoric duststorm to the arena when amateur astronomers first spot signs of activity from Mars, and there’s a coda with a jaw-dropping sting in its tail.

An undeniable star, alongside Justin Hayward and Chris Thompson, who both featured on the original recording, and new cast members Jason Donovan, Liz McClarnon and Rhydian Roberts, is the 35ft, three tonne, Martian Fighting Machine.

 

Descending from the roof half an hour in, it is familiar, thanks to Wells’ defining iconography, carried through Wayne’s album artwork, yet still absolutely alien. And its devastating Heat- Ray came with real flames this year, raising temperatures and widening eyes in at least the first few rows.

 

“It’s pretty breathtaking, even for those of us who’ve been round the block a few times,” production manager Steve Nolan grins. “But there’s so much technology on this show, in all departments. Lights, video, pyro, surround sound; technically it’s all very complex. The whole show is run off time code so they all have to connect seamlessly.” And there’s more in the pipeline too. “The ideas and the potential are almost endless, we’re just developing the delivery.”

It’s a credit to everyone involved that the live performance remains absolutely true to the recording; the score and the storytelling enhanced rather than diminished by the visuals. There is however room for one final flourish after musicians, cast and Wayne have taken their bows. Some time after The Journalist sees the Martians relinquish their claim on Earth, having succumbed to terrestrial bacteria, a modern day NASA mission to the red planet gets a bit too close for comfort and an engineer falls foul of the Heat-Ray, to blistering effect. “It’s a whole new level of excitement,” Wayne smiles.