The Brighton Centre is a huge barn of a place, particularly well suited to rock concerts, so a live production of Jeff Wayne’s musical version of H.G. Wells The War of the Worlds with the 36 piece ULLAdubULLA Strings, the nine piece Black Smoke Band (featuring Chris Spedding and Herbie Flowers from the original 1978 album), a huge Martian Fighting Machine and a 100 foot wide animation screen, is the perfect show for the venue.
For this 40th Anniversary tour, stage and screen star Jason Donovan returns to the role of Parson Nathaniel, with Carrie Hope Fletcher playing his wife, Beth. Adam Garcia debuts as The Artilleryman and British singer-songwriter Newton Faulkner performs The Sung Thoughts of The Journalist. Nathan James is vocally amazing as The Voice of Humanity and Anna-Marie Wayne returns to the role of Carrie, The Journalist’s Fiancee with Liam Neeson dominating proceedings in his role, in video and 3D holography, as The Journalist.
With the exception of Neeson, the rest of the cast are woefully underused to the point that, at times, they almost appear to be getting in the way of a really stunning prog-rock concert. When they do appear, the cast do so with varying degrees of success. Although we have to wait until act two, Jason Donovan’s descent into madness, as Parson Nathaniel blames himself for the “demons” now invading the earth, is a sterling performance, but Newton Faulkner needs a lot more power in his voice to deliver Forever Autumn as well as Justin Hayward did, although thousands of autumn leaves falling from high above the arena did provide a sublime and mellow addition to the iconic song.
Nathan James (front-man of hard-rock band Inglorious), as The Voice of Humanity, deserves more stage time than he gets. His powerful vocals and incredible stage presence work well together to draw the attention away from the rather dodgy graphics in his big number, Thunder Child.
The huge onstage band, conducted (as it is at every live performance) by Jeff Wayne himself, really do punch out the music, with a superb mixture of thundering percussion, powerful rock guitars and a bank of strings that send the music soaring through the arena – although at times a little too loud to the point that some of the less powerful vocals are somewhat drowned out.
Although the production does lack a lot in the way of real drama, there is no doubt that it is a spectacle and, at the end of the day, it is the music that the fans have come to hear and enjoy live – and they love it. The spontaneous and heartfelt standing ovation for Jeff Wayne is a fitting tribute to the genius who, 40 years on, still obviously loves delivering his iconic music.
*** Three Stars