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War of the Worlds live stage show

 
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Toggy



Joined: 18 Aug 2008
Posts: 1239

PostPosted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 9:26 pm    Post subject: War of the Worlds live stage show Reply with quote

My better half and I were lucky enough to be sitting in the very front row of Sheffield arena last night watching this fantastic show.
It has been retitled the new generation mainly because the cast are completely different.

They were as follows

The Journalist - Liam Neeson - excellent, absolutely faultless performance from him.

Sung thoughts of the journalist - Marti Pellow - Very good, poor chap obviously has a lot to live up too emulating Justin Hayward but he really gave it his all, nice smooth vocals slightly moodier than Hayward's.

Parson Nathaniel - Jason Donovan, yes Jason Donovan - Do you know what, he was a revelation, very strong singing voice which really surprised me, very impressed.

Beth - Kerry Ellis - I don't know the lady but she's bloomin' good, again a lovely voice, powerful and sung with feeling.

The artillery Man - Ricky Wilson (Kaiser Chiefs) - Well this was a surprise, I did not know he could act! good solid performance.

Add to this Chris Spedding & Herbie Flowers on Guitar, full on orchestra with Jeff Wayne himself conducing and mind blowing stage effects.
The result a brilliant evening which was well worth the journey from Cambridgeshire, if you get the chance to see it do go.
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FleetingEileenM



Joined: 30 Mar 2010
Posts: 5789
Location: Hampshire

PostPosted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 9:59 am    Post subject: Re: War of the Worlds live stage show Reply with quote

Toggy wrote:
Parson Nathaniel - Jason Donovan, yes Jason Donovan - Do you know what, he was a revelation, very strong singing voice which really surprised me, very impressed.

He is such a good stage performer. I took my young sons to the London Palladium when he was in "Joseph" in the 1990s and he was superb.
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Ian Robinson
Site Admin


Joined: 11 Dec 2006
Posts: 3609
Location: Chorley, Lancashire

PostPosted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 12:09 pm    Post subject: Re: War of the Worlds live stage show Reply with quote

Toggy wrote:
Beth - Kerry Ellis - I don't know the lady but she's bloomin' good, again a lovely voice, powerful and sung with feeling.

She's great - I saw her in Wicked (as Elphalpha), and she did a cracking Friday Night Is Music Night recently.
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Toggy



Joined: 18 Aug 2008
Posts: 1239

PostPosted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 9:26 pm    Post subject: Re: War of the Worlds live stage show Reply with quote

FleetingEileenM wrote:

He is such a good stage performer. I took my young sons to the London Palladium when he was in "Joseph" in the 1990s and he was superb.


I had heard that he was good but I didn't realise how good, he was excellent & he really put his heart and soul into the part.
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Toggy



Joined: 18 Aug 2008
Posts: 1239

PostPosted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 9:30 pm    Post subject: Re: War of the Worlds live stage show Reply with quote

Ian Robinson wrote:

She's great - I saw her in Wicked (as Elphalpha), and she did a cracking Friday Night Is Music Night recently.


Yes, when I finally got around the reading the program it mentioned she was in Wicked, very impressed by her performance.


One person I forgot to post about was Will Stapleton as the voice of humanity. Upon reading the program I see he is in a rock band called Jetblack.
Will has an amazingly powerful rock singer type voice which was perfectly suited to Thunderchild.
It was actually nice to see that Jeff Wayne had obviously out a lot of thought into the casting, everybody was really really good.
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TrickyTaylors



Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Posts: 46
Location: Glos

PostPosted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 2:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's all about opinions isn't it? We saw this at the NIA last week and I was pretty disappointed by the whole thing.

The music is familiar and was reproduced faithfully by a thoroughly professional bunch of musicians. Special effects were limited to a backdrop slide show, and a drop down fighting machine. I knew Liam Neeson appeared via a recording but I didn't expect such a hurried and indistinct delivery.

I found Marti Pellow weak and insipid, and it must have been one of the easiest few quid he's ever 'earned'. Jason Donovan was unexpectedly good, the Voice of Humanity was limited, but ideally suited to the part, the rest quite unmemorable.

I'm glad I've seen it, but I expected much more from a stage presentation of the score, and at £50 a ticket (£15 a Programme), it felt more like an exercise in generating income.
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