War of the Worlds

[loureviews]

Feb 10, 2016 0:07:18 GMT tsxmitw said:

Best part is the orchestra - otherwise, one of my worst theatre experiences ever. 

Couple next to me left within 15 minutes, at the interval half my row emptied out. Looking around the theatre it seems that many others chose to escape too - which must have been disheartening for the cast to see, since most of the auditorium is lit up by blinding light effects for most of the show. 

Firstly, there were major sound issues insofar as you could hardly hear Liam Neeson's narration and I would say some of the singers were practically inaudible. The orchestra sounds gorgeous but was far, far too loud and overpowering.

Next as the poster above me mentioned, some frankly bizarre choreography and massively over-cast production overall. First act basically consists of cast members running on and off stage with the odd over-reaction to a flame effect. 

The set was incredibly cheap. Tripod looks as though it was made of straws and papier mâché while Neeson is projected onto random bits of tatty fabric that sporadically descend every now and again. Blurry projections with naff CGI too. 

Daniel Bedingfield an utter joke - he can't act, so why is he in theatre? His repeated attempts at falsetto really do have to be heard to be believed. 

Massive blooper when huge Tripod descended from rafters and awkwardly stood at the side of the stage for half of act 2. 

Also, as mentioned, watch out for the garish strobe lights which genuinely hurt your eyes...

It was frankly awful. I'd forgive it for being first preview except problems seem far more fundamental.

Spend your money on something else. 

Oh dear. We have front row tickets. Take earplugs and sunglasses?

[harveyjunior]

I'm seeing this tonight! Excited to see if the hype matches the show!

[partytentdown]

As a collector of theatrical sh*te, this sounds right up my alley.

Since when does 'projecting onto a tatty sheet' = 'hologram'?

[Nelly]

I saw this last night. I went in knowing pretty much nothing about it. I thought it was pretty atrocious to be quite honest. I'll mix things up and start with the bit I liked.


The orchestra, however over amplified they were, were brilliant and a joy to listen to.


Right that's the good bit over with. This is a big argument at the moment about casting. I know when the casting was announced for this a lot of my performer friends were extremely pissed off with the direction they'd gone in. I always like to give things the benefit of the doubt and make my mind up so went into this with an open mind casting wise. BOY did they get this wrong. So wrong that I actually found myself having to stifle laughter at how miscast it was.

Daniel Bedingfield should be NOWHERE near a west-end stage in a musical. It makes me feel so despondent about this industry that people sat around a table (or maybe just blindly selected him) and thought that he was up to the job. David Essex simply couldn't handle his role either, he kept coming in on his lines late which didn't really work when every time any of the cast sang they seemed to be duetting with a backing track of themsleves. Jimmy Nail - another one I thought was poor, perhaps he was let down by the poor sound but I didn't think he was great.

Madalena and Heidi came out the best I think but even they got/looked lost in it all.

If you don't want to know about certain elements of the show stop reading now.



The technical side of things was such a huge let down. Usually, when a lighting designer decides to blind the audience, it's to mask something happening on stage (an actor vanishing, a quick set change etc) here it just seemed relentless and pointless. There are SO many ways the lighting for the heat ray could have been done but this was just comical and a missed opportunity! A single moving light rigged on a bit of scaff pipe trying to match the movement of the video interpretation of the heat ray behind it.
The sound was all over the place, Liam Neeson's video clips were barely audible and there were several times when parts of his head were cut off because the bit of random fabric or one of the screens hadn't quite hit his mark. There were times when there was nothing at all for the projection to hit so just hit the back wall blurred. I'm also sure I saw mention that there was meant to be a hologram? There certainly wasn't last night.

When it came to the curtain call, I've never heard such a dull reaction from an audience. Just polite clapping and the odd whoop. Not the rapturous reception I'm sure they were hoping for and that the even more amplified music tried to force the audience into.

I'm hoping for the sake of those that have paid money to see this later in the run get a lot more of a slick production, but nothing can shadow how badly cast this was.

[richey]

Oh dear. This is getting slated on their Facebook page and that is from supposed fans of the show. It truly sounds dire from what those who have seen it have posted -poor sound quality,cheap sets and an ensemble that doesn't seem to know what it's doing there.
I was considering getting a last minute ticket when I was down there on a few weeks time but don't think I'll bother now!

[Someone in a tree]

Knowing the producer it won't go to comp city. Shame as I want to see this train wreck, sorry spaceship wreck !

[wickedgrin]

It was on TKTS for £70 the other day!!

[Nelly]

Feb 11, 2016 15:56:43 GMT Someone in a tree said:

Knowing the producer it won't go to comp city. Shame as I want to see this train wreck, sorry spaceship wreck !

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.

[Marwood]

Thank God I got my money back rather than going to see this another night, sounds like an absolute car crash of a show.

[harveyjunior]

I saw this the other night, really hoping to enjoy it as i love certain people in the cast/ ensemble.
But it was so dire.
It's supposed to be a concert not a theatrical show so you can forgive the OTT lighting and sound (at times you can't hear the vocals due to the band being so loud), but it was the performances as well. At one point - and i must stress i would never do this as it's rude, but five people all in the front row got up during act 1 and walked out (they may have moved to a back row of seats where it was quieter though?) anyway, beddingfield saw this and laughed on stage to another actor, which was noticed by everyone. And not appreciated . Vocally he was very odd, a vibrato which i could not understand at all! Why has no one in the team spoken to him about it!!
Heidi was mega weak too. And hoarse. In fact not s single credible voice or acting performance by any of them.
I also left at the interval.

[wisu]

I decided to buy a last minute ticket on Tuesday. Didn't know it was the first preview.
I've seen a lot of strange things on this stage that night, but nevermind.
I wanted to experience it, because I've been told that the music itself has a huge following and I was hoping for an amazing sound because of that.

The sound mix didn't work for me. I couldn't hear a single clear word coming out of those speakers during the dialogues.
And so, for the first time I left a production within the first 30 min of act 1.

After "The War of the Worlds" I appreciated "The Peace for the Ears".

[Deleted]

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

[firefingers]

Feb 11, 2016 16:20:28 GMT Nelly said:

Feb 11, 2016 15:56:43 GMT Someone in a tree said:

Knowing the producer it won't go to comp city. Shame as I want to see this train wreck, sorry spaceship wreck !

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.

Well the old forum the rule was you could say a show was comping, but not which companies were doing said comps. But that rule may have been imposed by our now overthrown overlords at WhatsOnStage, so even that may no longer apply. 

[Deleted]

The conversation did come up in the Feedback board; I think the general rule of thumb is to be discreet rather than triumphant, and if mentioning comps contravenes the rules of any body that is offering comps, then definitely don't mention it because it would suck for people if they stopped offering comps just because one person couldn't stop themselves from going "HAHA THIS SHOW IS SELLING SOOOOO BADLY" on the internet.

EDIT: from The Matthew:

To clarify, for people who don't understand the issue:



"I hear {name of show} isn't doing all that well and half the audience are there on comps" - OK

"You can get comps for various shows through the following subscription services" - OK

"I got free tickets for {name of show} through FreeTicketsForFAwfulShows.com" - not OK

Sooo... *clears throat* I hear War Of The Worlds isn't doing all that well and half the audience are there on comps. *ahem*

[Nelly]

When is the official opening night? I'm excited to read what the critics think! Hehe

[Deleted]

Wednesday is the 'Gala' performance. Think press are going in from Monday.

Every show in the West end comps to some degree. The fact that War of the Worlds is doing it is hardly news! 

[alece10]

Feb 12, 2016 9:38:39 GMT @ryan said:

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

Me too, nothing like a car crash show. Makes good dinner party conversation.

[Steve]

Feb 9, 2016 23:07:44 GMT raiseitup said:

The cast... Why hire Q-list celebrities, when they can't even sing or act?! David Essex got quite a big response, but the rest of them were 'ooo wasn't that that girl who used to be in that girl band, Girls A... No. Misteeq? No oh, the Sugababes.' Daniel Beddingfield's acting consisted of shouting every third word, he also does this very bizarre flasetto A LOT which needs to be seen to be believed. David Essex cannot sing even remotely, but got the second biggest cheer of the night, after Jeff Wayne

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.

[DebbieDoesDouglas(Hodge)]

COMPS COMPA COMPS


I doubt any company is gona stop doing them coz people talk about them, init.

I can get COMPS a fair bit but nowt juicey has been offered (to me at least) in ages. All must be well in the land of show

[Deleted]

Just seen on Facebook that Daniel Bedingfield is out tonight. The shows only been open a week!

[djp]

Feb 13, 2016 12:46:43 GMT Steve said:

Feb 9, 2016 23:07:44 GMT raiseitup said:

The cast... Why hire Q-list celebrities, when they can't even sing or act?! David Essex got quite a big response, but the rest of them were 'ooo wasn't that that girl who used to be in that girl band, Girls A... No. Misteeq? No oh, the Sugababes.' Daniel Beddingfield's acting consisted of shouting every third word, he also does this very bizarre flasetto A LOT which needs to be seen to be believed. David Essex cannot sing even remotely, but got the second biggest cheer of the night, after Jeff Wayne

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?

[bulletproof]

Feb 13, 2016 12:46:43 GMT Steve said:

Feb 9, 2016 23:07:44 GMT raiseitup said:

The cast... Why hire Q-list celebrities, when they can't even sing or act?! David Essex got quite a big response, but the rest of them were 'ooo wasn't that that girl who used to be in that girl band, Girls A... No. Misteeq? No oh, the Sugababes.' Daniel Beddingfield's acting consisted of shouting every third word, he also does this very bizarre flasetto A LOT which needs to be seen to be believed. David Essex cannot sing even remotely, but got the second biggest cheer of the night, after Jeff Wayne

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.

Was moved to join this forum to agree with this post Steve - it's spot on.

The main "problem" with this is show is the muddying of the waters around what it is supposed to be.

This is a music gig, first and foremost, and not a traditional West End musical.  Those going appreciating that it's a music concert with extra bells and whistles will really enjoy it. Those imagining it to be a fully fledged "musical" are setting themselves up for disappointment.  I'm not sure that message has been made clear to everyone in the marketing.

I went last week and loved it - didn't suffer any of the sound issues some have complained of, but perhaps I was just lucky.  I accept that some of the casting seems to have been done to appeal to particular demographics, I thought they all played their parts well (Beddingfield did have some trouble with the high notes, but I put that down to a problem with his voice - he missed the next performance because of it).

If I could make one improvement it would be to get rid of Neeson's video sections altogether and simply replace them with Burton's original voiceover - as it stands you are torn between the two conflicting versions of the journalist and either watching the video or the stage - the Burton voiceover is much more impressive and would allow you to focus on events on stage more.  

I fully intend to go again asap...

[Steve]

Feb 15, 2016 21:15:30 GMT djp said:

Feb 13, 2016 12:46:43 GMT Steve said:

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?

DJP, lol, yes I did buy a programme, and sorry, I'm afraid Julia Thornton is not listed.

In The Black Smoke Band, Olivia Jageurs is playing Harp and Percussion, and Accy Yeats is on drums.

[richey]

wow this looks unbearably naff!
www.broadwayworld.com/westend/article/Photo-Coverage-First-Look-at-THE-WAR-OF-THE-WORLDS-at-the-Dominion-Theatre-20160216

[Seriously]

oughttobeclowns.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/review-war-of-worlds-dominion.html