War of the Worlds
I can still remember sitting in my lounge room, five years old, listeningto Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds. The music, voices and album artcreated such an indelible image in my mind that even now, 20 yearslater, just hearing the opening moments of the overture is enough to bring back aflood of memories and, judging by the raucous reaction of the almost fullAcer Arena, I'm not alone.
This new arena spectacular takes Wayne’s classic rock-musical (which waswritten in 1978) and attempts to update it for a new generation withthe aid of a live orchestra and rock band, lasers, pyrotechnics, Surroundsound,a 30 foot alien and brand new computer-generated movies that play throughoutthe show.
Fans of the original shouldn’t despair, the fabulous art that accompaniedthat album (including work by Peter Goodfellow, Michael Trim and GeoffTaylor) is also featured but as is to be expected, the show is dominated bythe computer effects, even the late Richard Burton (whose voice is wiselystill included) watches over proceedings from behind the auspices of a 3D,computer generated holographic head.
However, overall the computer graphics (which are often combined withlive actors on screen) are not up to scratch and it comes off looking alittle amateurish. Given the incredible popularity of the show and the scale ofthis production you’d think they would have spent more time on making the videostop notch given the extraordinary quality of animation work these days. Alas it was not to be. That said, the orchestra and band, whichcomprises most of the original musicians, is first rate and the cast,which includes original cast members Justin Haywood and Chris Thompson alongwith Michael Falzon, Rachael Beck and Shannon Noll, are all excellent.
The real revelation in this show is Shannon Noll who plays ParsonNathaniel. Noll dominates the stage and is quite convincing in both his actingand singing, completely overshadowing the more experienced Beck (who playshis wife and whose role is not as sharply defined). Watching his performance it is not difficult to imagine Nollcould have a fantastic career in more traditional musical theatre if hewants to.
The show has aged well, even after 30 years, a fact that can be put down to H.G Wells' original story just as much as to Wayne's music. While at stages the computer graphics may have made things a little cheesier than one could have hoped, the overall experience of seeing War of the Worlds live is an exciting and memorable one.
You can hear interviews with some of the cast and crew involved in War of the Worlds through our podcast Stagecast:
Episode 45 - Shannon Noll and Rachael Beck
Episode 33 - Jeff Wayne
