Bournemouth International Centre, December 12, 2018

Jeff Wayne’s 1978 prog-rock and strings concept album chronicling H. G. Wells’ tale of the Martian invasion of Victorian England returns to UK arenas with a version that fuses the best parts of the previous tours.

The chances of this show coming to Bournemouth were considerably less than a million to one, not least because the Bournemouth International Centre will always hold a certain significance for The War of the Worlds’ live tour.  It was here in 2006 that the show was first performed to a paying public, and you can see some of the backstage footage in the extras of the DVD release. So while not a homecoming gig as such, there was a still a sense of comfortable familiarity to this welcome return. Indeed, such was the popularity that an extra matinee performance was squeezed in between the evening shows.

I first saw this show 10 years ago when it still featured Richard Burton as the Narrator, his face projected onto the stage with animated mouth. Then, with Liam Neeson voicing this role for the 2012 The New Generation re-vamp, a more interactive video projection of him was recorded for use in the subsequent tours. And it’s this narrator, coupled with the original version of the soundtrack used to celebrate the 40th Anniversary. Gone is the prologue with the Martians preparing for war, as is the section with the steampunk couple. It begins with Neeson’s narration, and then the strings kick in.

There’s a good reason that this show is only performed in arenas – it needs a huge amount of space for all the onstage performers (the 10-piece Black Smoke Band and 48-piece ULLAdubULLA Strings band and room for the actors to move around) as well as the 3-tonne, 35-foot tall flame-spouting Martian tripod and the new addition of a bridge for Brave New World that comes out into the audience. You don’t see the tripod and bridge until their grand reveals but there’s still a sense of awe as audience members file in to the auditorium.

Some hadn’t noticed the tripod dangling from the rafters, but its presence is known when its telescopic legs descend and its bulbous eyes light up. Not only does it fire its lasers across the audience, but three jets of flame shoot out – you can feel the heat. Indeed, the pyrotechnics are impressive, from fiery death Ray to a line of flames across the width of the stage. And it’s loud – proper loud – loud enough to stop chattering in the audience, and with an impressive surround mix which bounces the audio around the hall.

The music is as you’d expect, but with a variation on Forever Autumn introducing the second act; It now features Carrie in person rather than just as a pre-record, with Anna-Marie Wayne interacting with Newton Faulkner  in a duet. I wasn’t familiar with new song (to me anyway) Life Begins Again, which gives gives the otherwise separate members of the cast to come together.

Adam Garcia (Doctor Who) who recently played Father Karras on stage in The Exorcist channels his inner David Essex as the Artilleryman, striding across the bridge which descends across the arena floor like a deus ex machina, while pop legend Jason Donovan reprises his 2014 role as Parson Nathaniel, this time joined by the excellent Carrie Hope Fletcher (musical versions of Heathers and The Addams Family) as his wife Beth.

The main cast is rounded off by Newton Faulkner as Sung Thoughts of the Journalist and the lead singer of Inglorious, Nathan James, as the Voice of Humanity. But the biggest cheer for the evening is saved for Jeff Wayne, animatedly controlling his band and orchestra from the podium, with fire jets so close to his head that he  must be in danger of singeing his eyebrows!

Verdict: Short of a feature film version (and possibly the upcoming VR experience) this the closest you can get to living Jeff Wayne’s classic album. 40 years young, it has lost little of its impact, and as Ruby anniversaries go this is a great celebration. Ulla! 10/10

Nick Joy

Click for our exclusive interviews with Jeff Wayne and Anna-Marie Wayne discussing the new tour and the new Audible version