Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds - Life Begins Again Tour (2022) - Review

Hello, folks. I'm going to get one thing out of the way right off the bat - I'm a big kid. Some people might scoff when I tell them I spent actual money on going to see Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of the Worlds - The Life Begins Again tour. But guess what? I'm happy to have done so.

Let me give you a bit of history. My first introduction to Jeff Wayne's multi-platinum, chart-topping album from 1978 began when I first read H.G. Wells' seminal classic novel The War of the World years before I can remember. Starring Richard Burton as the Journalist, Justin Hayward, of the Moody Blues as the Sung Thoughts of the Journalist, David Essex as the Artilleryman, Chris Thompson as the Voice of Humanity, Phil Lynott as a particularly eccentric Parson Nathaniel and Julie Covington as the Parson's Wife, Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds is a gem of disco prog-rock, brimming with letimotifs, mellifluous cast readings and is generally a faithful retelling of the novel.

I managed to get a hold of an original CBS vinyl pressing of the album for a princely sum of £5 from a local charity shop (do give This 'n' That a visit in Kendal town, it's a gem of a shop) which earned the spot of my first vinyl record.

In 2012, Jeff released JWMVOTWOTW - The New Generation, featuring a new cast (Liam Neeson, Gary Barlow, Ricky Wilson, Alex Clare, Maverick Sabre and Joss Stone respectively as above), new arrangements, a new synth-sounding sound and a new steampunk-inspired art design.

I had the pleasure, in 20120, of seeing the War of the Worlds - Alive! On Stage just prior to it's digital upgrade at the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester. Featuring a fully-digital Richard Burton hovering above the stage as a holographic projection, the show was a tour-de-force of technology, stage design and some dutiful performances from some of the original actors (Hayward, Thompson) and new ones (Alexis James, Rhydian Roberts and Jennifer Ellison). In 2012, the newly relaunched tour featuring the new album hit stadiums worldwide, with Neeson reprising his role (joined on-stage by Ricky Wilson, Marti Pellow, Will Stapelton, Jason Donovan and Kerry Ellis).

It would take another ten years for me to see The War of the Worlds live again - this time on the Life Begins Again tour, the first since Covid restrictions lifted allowing large-scale indoor arena events to go ahead. The cast sees Liam Neeson to (virtually) appear on stage, accompanied by Justin Hayward, reprising his role for the first time in ten years, Kevin Clifton as the Artilleryman, Nathan James as the Voice of Humanity, Duncan James as Parson Nathaniel and Claire Richard's as Beth, the Parson's wife. In an expanded role, Anna-Marie Wayne finds her place as Carrie, the Journalist's fiancée, a role she has played in a smaller capacity since 2006.

The show itself was the usual superb affair - musically, the album melds the two versions of the album together, featuring more of the acoustic elements from the original and using the lacklustre synths from the New Generation only sparingly. Jeff is in his usual high spirits, drinking in the energetic audience as he rushes from the head of the ramp and bouncing about in his podium as he conducts the performers once the show gets underway. Missing on this tour are the two prequels that preceded in previous tours - a human one featuring amateur astronomers and a second, CGI introduction featuring the martians. It's a welcome change, as these bogged down the show before it even began. The cast of performers turned in a great collection of characters; it's always a joy to see Justin Hayward performing on Eve of the War and Forever Autumn. Kevin Clifton excels as the Artilleryman, as does Duncan James and Claire Richards as Nathaniel and Beth, respectively. Stealing the show is Nathan James, whose powerful voice lends a brilliant resonance to Brave New World - even if it took him three attempts to find the right note for the powerful climax.

Where the show stumbles, perhaps disappointingly, is in the lacklustre live mix - advertised as being a 5.1ch extravaganza - which rendered voices treble-high and drowning out the bass. Only in the second act did the seat-rumbling tones finally come forward. Other technical blips came in the form of deafening feedback from Justin's microphone (a moment hard to disguise when the 11-foot image of him adjusting his microphone and ear-mic was projected on three screens above the stage). The CGI film, touted as a 2-hour, cutting edge film, is hilariously dated with poor compositing, awkward editing and a generally unfinished feel. As a final point, it was obvious that the eight projectors running the film had not quite been lined up correctly - image ghosting ran right down the centre of the 100-foot animation wall, leading at one point to Liam Neeson appearing on stage with a clone offset.

But these are small niggles that were quickly forgotten, as the show itself was masterfully staged - hearing the opening, dramatic notes of Eve of the War pounding the audience as a 35-foot Martian Fighting Machine descended onto the stage, its bug eyes glowing a menacing green, and firing flames at the audience is always a jaw-dropping moment - from my vantage point high in the rafters at the very back of the arena, I saw a sea of screens light up, Xyloband style, making this the most photographed moment of the show. In the second half, Jeff began to play with his formula, introducing a Forever Autumn reprise just before The Red Weed, Part I, featuring Anna-Marie Wayne as Carrie, the Journalist's fiancée, duetting with Justin 'on the shores of France'. Similarly, the new song Life Begins Again features twice, once at the end of Brave New World and during Epilogue, Part 1. It's at this point, the show seems to become unwieldy - Brave New World, already a near 13 minute song, threatens to collapse under the weight of an extended interlude. Once would have been enough for this particular tune.

Overall, Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of the Worlds: Life Begins Again is another superb show from one of the most enduring albums of all time. For fans of the album, it's a must-see; fans of musicals in general should definitely give it a look. I'm hopeful that the technical issues are part of early-day errors (this being one of the earlier stops in the tour) and that they'll be ironed out for future shows. Not only is this, the Life Begins again tour particularly timely for being the first post-Covid tour from Jeff, it also, through the appearance of H.G. Wells (the author of the original novel) at three stages of his life (at the turn of 1900, the end of the First World War and the beginning of World War II), serves as an unintentionally dour warning of 'Martians in different forms', referencing dictators, warmongers and power-hungry zealots - reminding us that through unity, love and endurance, the future is indeed bright.

As Brave New World reminds us; "Maybe from the madness, something beautiful will grow'.

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Sam's Score: 9