Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of 'The War Of The Worlds' - The New Generation:
Alive On Stage!

Heineken Music Hall
Amsterdam
The Netherlands

16th December 2014 (2014-12-16)


RECORDING:

Type: Audience master, recorded from seat in the centre of row 11 of the
stalls, approximately 15 metres from the stage.

Source: Factory-matched pair of Schoeps CCM 41V microphones (DINa mounted) ->
Marantz PMD661 recorder with Oade Concert Mod
(-18 dB gain/44.1 kHz/24 bit WAV)

Lineage: Audacity 2.0.6
* Applied envelope tool for minor amplification.
* Applied Click Removal effect to attenuate small amounts of
applause (Threshold 200/Max Spike Width 40).
* Attenuated a few peaks caused by pyrotechnics.
* Added fades.
* Split tracks.
* Converted to 16 bit.
-> FLAC (compression level 8) [libFLAC 1.3.1 20141125]

Taper: Ian Macdonald (ianmacd)


SET LIST:

Act I: The Coming Of The Martians

01. [01:16] [intro]
02. [03:13] H.G. Wells (Part 1)
03. [03:03] The Prequel
04. [10:14] The Eve Of The War
05. [12:08] Horsell Common And The Heat Ray
06. [12:07] The Artilleryman And The Fighting Machine
07. [07:53] Forever Autumn
08. [06:13] Thunder Child

Act II: The Earth Under The Martians

09. [02:36] H.G. Wells (Part 2)
10. [01:34] Distant Shores
11. [06:56] The Red Weed (Part 1)
12. [12:01] The Spirit Of Man
13. [05:24] The Red Weed (Part 2)
14. [03:20] The Artilleryman Returns
15. [13:44] Brave New World/Life Begins Again
16. [05:30] Dead London (Part 1)
17. [03:47] Dead London (Part 2)
7:36 PM 12/23/2014 18. [04:28] Epilogue (Part 1)/Life Begins Again (Reprise)
19. [01:58] H.G. Wells (Part 3)
20. [02:12] Epilogue (Part 2) NASA
21. [05:04] [cast & band introductions]

Total running time: 124:55

NOTES:

This is the last ever arena tour that Jeff Wayne will be undertaking of his
now famous musical version of H.G. Wells' classic scientific romance, 'The War
Of The Worlds'.

Even more poignantly, tonight is the final performance of that final tour and
its only date to be performed outside the U.K.

I'm not sure why Jeff Wayne has seen fit to include at least one Dutch date on
every tour of this show since 2009. Obviously, it must have made commercial
sense, but I'm still grateful to him for the numerous opportunities I've had
over the years to see the show without having to resort to international
travel.

It's almost two years to the day since Jeff last brought the show to these
shores. On that occasion, he chose the cavernous Ahoy in Rotterdam for his
extravaganza. This time around, I'm pleased that he has returned to the
familiar surroundings and better acoustics of the Heineken Music Hall in
Amsterdam.

There are cast changes to almost all of the roles for the 2014 tour, with only
Jason Donovan returning from the 2012 stage cast as Parson Nathaniel.

Westlife's Brian McFadden takes over as The Sung Thoughts of The Journalist, X
Factor 2005 winner Shayne Ward is The Artilleryman, X Factor 2013's Joseph
Whelan becomes The Voice of Humanity, and Carrie Hope Fletcher plays Beth, the
wife of Parson Nathaniel.

Of the new cast, only Shayne Ward as The Artilleryman fails to fully convince.
The part calls for a Londoner, and Ward's camp Mancunian delivery is a
distraction. His reading of some of his lines also lacks drama, but at least
he possesses a decent singing voice.

Apart from the cast changes, the main innovations in the 2014 production are
the inclusion of three scenes featuring Callum O'Neill as H.G. Wells, who
holds a monologue with the audience; and 'Life Begins Again', a new song
developed around an existing theme in 'Brave New World' and now intertwined
with it.

The three new scenes featuring Wells as a character on the periphery of his
own masterpiece work well. The first of these scenes replaces the prologue
seen in the 2010 and 2012 stage productions, which featured a pair of amateur
astronomers observing activity on Mars.

Wells is aged 33, 53 and 79 respectively in the three new scenes, and the
make-up that effects the ageing process is very convincing.

'Life Begins Again', on the other hand, could and should have been left out.
Making its entrance as the first new song in the entire 37 year history of the
production, it should have been held up to an almost unattainable standard.

Sadly, it's a cheesy piece of musical theatre. It begins well enough with the
voice of Shayne Ward, but when the on-screen Anna-Marie Wayne makes the leap
from actress to singer, things quickly unravel. She's saturated in autotune
and sounds like a PWL reject.

Further cast harmonies are added until you arrive at a textbook example of
toe-curling West End sentimentality. Not only does it add nothing of value, it
actually detracts from the drama of 'Brave New World' and ultimately yields a
net negative for the production.

The song comes back to haunt us in even more indulgent form during the first
part of the epilogue.

A studio version of 'Life Begins Again' can be found here:

https://soundcloud.com/thewaroftheworldsofficial/life-begins-again

...but I don't recommend it.

The other obvious thing you'll notice in this production is that the cast and
band introductions have been moved from the first half of the epilogue to the
very end of the show.

The show ends with a group hug between Jeff Wayne and the actors. To their
left, Messrs. Flowers and Spedding, veterans of this project since playing on
the original 1978 double album, shake hands and congratulate each other on a
job well done.

It's hard to imagine that this is the final curtain for the show, but this was
billed as the "final arena tour". That suggests that Wayne might not yet be
finished with the project on which he has built almost an entire career, but
if it is to return at some future point in time, no-one yet knows which form
it will take.

The recording is excellent. As always, samples are included to help you
determine whether it is worth your while.

Images for all shows as well as full size images for this show.

Images for this show:











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