War of the Worlds

They comped for the first preview (the actual first preview, not the one that was cancelled)

I forget if I'm allowed to say that or not.

Reading all of these brutal reviews actually makes me want to see it now!

This is a fundamentally misconceived project.

The problem is that the project wants to please core fans of the bombastic prog rock 1978 concept album, but since that won't pack in enough people to fill the Dominion for months, they hired a cast to expand the core, who appeal to people who will HATE this.

If you are old, and attended The Who's Quadrophenia concert, or Roger Daltry's Tommy concert or Roger Water's The Wall concert, you are the kind of person who might like this.

If you are young, and attended Muse's hyberbolic space-themed "Black Holes and Revelations" tour, if you think "Supermassive Black Hole" is awesome and "Knights of Cydonia" is overwhelming, you might like this.

But if you think the magnetic moving Madelena Alberto is going to be able humanise this onslaught of drums and electric guitars and alien invasion, remember she's only going to be able to tug your heartstrings for a couple of minutes during "Forever Autumn."

If you think that Michael Praed can bring the charm to this he brought to "The Sound of Music,"  be assured he is a charismatic capable leading man who hits the notes that Marti Pellow couldn't reach in the O2 Arena show, but remember his job is to look look wide-eyed and gob-smacked that the Martians are taking over the Earth as Liam Neeson drones on about Red Weeds, while Jeff Wayne's guitars and strings swamp the lot.

If you can't understand why David Essex (who hits the notes but not the way he used to) gets the biggest ovation, you may not be the core audience. He gets the ovation because he played Daniel Beddingfield's part of "The Artilleryman" on the original 39th-best-selling-in-the-UK-2.5-million-copy-shifting 1978 album. He gets the ovation for being "alive on stage" to quote the front cover programme blurb.

Heidi Range is there to get Sugababes fans to see something that is almost certainly not up their street, and hey, she can sing as well as Michael Praed, which is pretty well.

Jimmy Nail is there to get "Auf Weidersehn Pet" fans in, to cash his cheque, and to look bug-eyed and bonkers while his below-par singing is dwarfed out by guitars and strings.

Poor Daniel Beddingfield is asked to sing high notes he can't manage, and desperately veers between a choking chest voice and a screechy falsetto trying to hit them, but he has been cast to try and get wives to accompany their husbands, who want to relieve the simple times when bad meant Martians, and shades of grey were not acknowledged.

The choice of Liam Neeson as narrator is fundamentally misguided also. Yes, he's a star, but he hasn't got the iconic booming once-in-a-lifetime voice that Richard Burton had, which leant deceptive gravitas to a space-aged slice of simplistic "cowboys and indians" back in 1978. Richard Burton is someone every theatregoer WISHES they could have seen on stage, and he would have brought in more of the "aristocratic pensioners" (to quote the mischievous Robert Icke) that form so much of the theatregoing audience.

The orchestra and guitars and strings are excellent, and Jeff Wayne conducts them with gusto. For nostalgic lovers of the super-hit album, seeing Jeff Wayne in person is a major draw. If seeing Jeff Wayne is not a draw for you, you may not be in the core audience for this.

For years, the Dominion hosted Queen's equally bombastic music in "We Will Rock You," so why can't this repeat that success?

Well, Queen's Greatest Hits is actually the number one UK album of all time, not number 39. But more importantly, the show was a campfest, full of knowing silliness, that perfectly reflected the way Freddie Mercury never took himself or his crowd-pleasing bombast seriously. That innate modesty translated beautifully to today's post-modern cultural mix of sensitive despair and hedonistic silliness. Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds comes from a more portentous place and moment, and simply doesn't translate much further than it's shrunken target audience of (old) boys who love toys, and those who love pomp and rhythm and drums.

3 stars from me, 4 stars if you own the album and still play it, 2 stars otherwise.

Seems about right. i agree the music wins, and if you want a story or acting , you are doomed.

Did you buy a programme ? The site says virtually nothing.  Is Julia Thornton playing the harp and drums again? If so I might go and see it - she's a world class  act, and very watchable - its was watch either her or Donovan being more wooden than a tree thing, when I last saw it, and she won easily?