'War of the Worlds' album coming Live on stage

[Gargoyle_Steve (Steve)]

Jeff Wayn'e sensational "War of the Worlds" double album has been converted to a Live stage experience, coming to Australian stages in September this year.

http://www.thewaroftheworlds.com.au/
(make sure you click on the "music player" & "show footage" graphic style links down the right hand side.)


I am SO there!!!! New moon on the 11th, Martians attack on the 13th (Brisbane gig) - sounds like a great week to me.

(this section from Ticketek's page)
"This staged musical and multimedia production of the classic HG Wells 1898 science fiction story is a once-in-a-lifetime epic extravaganza, out of this world entertainment, unlike anything to have hit these shores before.

After selling out arenas in the UK in 2006, playing to 100,000 people across England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, Australians will now have the opportunity to witness one of the world's most famous and best-selling recordings of all time, Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of The Worlds, live in a thrilling theatrical and multimedia spectacle, with a brilliant cast, including, 23 years after his death, one of the world's greatest actors, Richard Burton, at the helm "in sight and sound" as George Herbert, The Journalist.

This acclaimed musical event will feature Jeff Wayne conducting the 10-member Black Smoke Band, plus a 40-piece String Orchestra. The stellar cast, from England, includes Justin Hayward and Chris Thompson, both re-creating their roles from the original album and the recent sell-out UK tour. They will be joined on-stage by Australia's three-time MTV Best Male Artist of The Year Shannon Noll, plus the wonderful talents of Rachael Beck and Michael Falzon.

Set in HG Wells Victorian England, Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of The Worlds brilliantly portrays the tale of Martians invading Earth and their terrifying trail of destruction.

TOUR DATES:
Saturday 8 September - Burswood Dome, Perth
Thursday 13 September - Brisbane Entertainment Centre
Tuesday 18 September - Acer Arena, Sydney
Friday 21 September - Rod Laver Arena at Melbourne Park "

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

I'm IN too. War of the Worlds used to ne one of my favourite albums, and I bought it when it first came out in 1978.

I wonder how Justin Hayward is these days as he's getting on. The Moody Blues were one of my favourite bands of all time. His voice was always so classy.

Great to see Richard Burton back.

Looking forward to it!

Cheers
Chris

[Gargoyle_Steve (Steve)]

Well tonight was the night for Brisbane (Thursday the 13th - it's now past midnight) and the show was amazing!

The music has lost nothing in the last 20 years at all, and in fact I doubt I've ever heard it as loud as it was tonight either (despite 2 x Sony amps in my lounge room), they sure didn't spare the decibels! The subwoofer system was pretty damn good, some of the visual explosions really rumbled solidly right through the floor in a clean, bassy way and not like the usual "overloud underclean" bass that can be common these days.

The performance consisted of 2 parts, with the break for a 20 minute ro so intermission obviously aligned with the gap between the 2 original albums, each part consisting of approx 50-55 minutes of light and sound spectacular.

The background "animation" that ran on a super-super wide screen right acros the entire rear of the stage were pretty stunning. Some of it was illustrations form the album cover, at other times it was newsreel film or similar of crowds and streeta reas, there was new CGI animations - so many different effects. The much touted "holographic" presence of the now deceased Richard Burton as narrator was inspired and very cleverly done, I do believe that Richard himself would have overwhelmingly approved.
(At the end of the show when all of the performers were brought back on stage and introduced they also asked for a round of applause for Richard - his effigy smiled and winked knowingly - it was a nice touch!)

I think the crowning glory really was the "real" 30 foot tall martian fighting machine that stood astride the front stage area for much of the night, complete with glowing green "canopy", smoke effects and it's own flashing heat ray! Luckily no audience members were incinerated.

The Brisbane Entertainment Centre looked to me to be a sold out venue tonight, however we bought our tickets online only 24 hours ago and had great seats! We requested (and paid for) "B" reserve seats but were seated in what was definitely the "A" reserve area - back row, rear of the "layered" floor section, dead centre, a great location to be!

For anyone who has a performance upcoming in their town I'd say if you liked the music then really REALLY try very hard to go, it was fantastic!



(Now sitting at work, leafing through my program booklet - which has a 4 page 3-D anaglyph centrefold - $25 gets you the program plus a set of 3-D glasses!)

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Dammit Steve - we're going to miss this in Sydney - which kills me. I loved the original album since its release day and still listen to it often. It's just one of those soundtracks that never wears me down or becomes boring to me.

AARGGHHHHhhhh!!!!!

Glad you liked the show

[Dennis]

Great write up Steve - sounds like you had a blast.

Cheers

Dennis

[Gargoyle_Steve (Steve)]

For those who won't or can't get a chance see this show live there's a 2 disk DVD set in stores now that was recorded at a performance filmed in Engalnd April 2006 (Wembley I think) - currently around the $30 mark, it woudl be well worth the money.

I'm definitely buying that too ....

[Ric]

I got the original vinyl double LP of it, came with a book and all.

I still play it, a top album. allthough the DVD sounds good value as well.

[mojo (Terry)]

You're not wrong about the music being timeless. And not only the music but the narrative conjures more interesting visuals than the 200 million dollar Steven Spielberg movie version. If that makes sense.

[leon]

Yep, I too have the original double album, it is an awesume sound track, listen to it often,

leon

[Glenhuon (Bill)]

Originally Posted by mojo

You're not wrong about the music being timeless. And not only the music but the narrative conjures more interesting visuals than the 200 million dollar Steven Spielberg movie version. If that makes sense.

I've still got the tapes I bought, absolutely classic stuff. As for the Speilberg movie and T. Cruise, Ho Hummm! keep me awake.

[Kal (Andrew)]

I'll be going to see this Wednesday night in Sydney. From your mini-review Steve it sounds like I'm in for an awesome night!

[merlin8r]

I'm off tonight! Can't wait, sounds great!

[rogerg (Roger)]

I saw this in Perth a couple of weeks back.. it was Ok, but didn't live up to what I was expecting. The best part was having a slight alternative on the music to the normal CD I listen to over and over, and the relatively good sound quality of a professional venue (perth's venue isn't great but OK). The performers did do a good job.

It was billed as having lots of special effects etc, and I thought they were fairly average. The animation was obviously many years behind current movie capabilities, and other shows I've seen many years ago had large props like the martian much more animated than this did.

For me, it wasn't worth the extremely high ticket cost of $160 for B reserve, but would have been worth $100.

We did enjoy the night, but it just wasn't as good as I expected and was too expensive for what it was, IMHO.

[OneOfOne (Trevor)]

We are off to see it on Saturday night at Rod Laver. I am a registered member of Ticketek and we had a special offer of A Reserve for the price of B. So it only cost us about $100 each.