THE opening bars of The
War Of The Worlds still has the power to send shivers down my spine
and give me goosebumps.
Nearly 40 years after
Jeff Wayne wrote the music for what was to become a blockbuster of a
double album, it still holds its own.
Dramatic, instantly
recognisable and with the ability to become locked in your brain it
sounds as fresh now as it did when it was first released.
The album spawned a
stage show which has been performed around the world for many years
and over that time Wayne has tweaked it every now and again.
It was last in the
capital at the 02 in Greenwich about 18 months ago and has now
arrived back in London for a stint at the Dominon Theatre and it is
quite an experience.
Loud, bonkers and
totally OTT it is part prog rock concert and part musical. It is
based on the science fiction book of the same name by HG Wells which
was written in 1897 and was considered ahead of its time because of
its content.
Wayne’s musical
version tells the story of the Martian invasion of England from the
Journalist's perspective.
We see how the Martians
invade and wreak havoc with their killing machines, ray guns and red
weeds and how the people try and fail to stem the tide of death and
destruction before – spoiler alert – the Martians die of
bacterial infections.
Wayne uses an orchestra
of strings combined with a rock band which play live on the stage
conducted by the great man himself.
What’s odd about the
show is that given the amount of time that has elapsed since he wrote
it he hasn’t found a way for the actors to be given something to do
when there is no singing, just music.
Instead there is much
running across the stage or staring out into the middle distance and
it looks a bit awkward.
However there is much
to recommend the show. It’s gloriously cheesy – at times the cheese factor is approaching Christmas stilton – with pyrotechnics, sound
effects, zip wires, people dressed as red weeds who writhe around the
stage, moving podiums on which the musicians play and even a towering
tripod with smoke and huge green bug eyes which comes lumbering in
and across the stage at various points.
There are also
projections, film footage and a hologram of Liam Neeson who plays the
Journalist. He appears on a screen which comes down from the top of
the stage and then goes back up before distractingly coming down
again 30 seconds later. This bobbing up and down continues for the
entire show.
There are some good
performances from the likes of David Essex, Michael Praed, Jimmy Nail
and Madalena Alberto but their characters aren’t developed fully
which is a shame and as a result they only really have one song each.
But of course the star
of the show is the music and it’s still as striking, catchy,
brilliant and amazing as it was when it was first written.
In fact it is like an
earworm stubbornly refusing to leave my brain. For those who love the
music this production will be a sure fire winner.
War Of The Worlds is on
at the Dominion Theatre until Saturday, April 30. Tickets from £29.
Visit www.dominiontheatre.com
or call the box office on 0845 200 7982.
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