BWW Interviews: THE WAR OF THE WORLDS' Creator Jeff Wayne Talks Burton, Neeson And More!

Anyone over a certain age will be very familiar with Jeff Wayne's masterful concept album adaptation of HG Wells's The War of the Worlds.

It originally featured the legendary Richard Burton, the late Thin Lizzy vocalist Phil Lynott, pop star David Essex, the Moody Blues's Justin Hayward, and, someone perhaps more familiar to musical theatre fans, Julie Covington.

And since 2006 the music has been brought to a new generation thanks to a spectacular live arena tour - and this year's version stars Brian McFadden, Jason Donovan (Joseph, Priscilla Queen of the Desert), Shayne Ward (Rock of Ages) and Carrie Hope Fletcher (Les Miserables).

Wayne is the creator and director of each new venture, and retains autonomy over his cast, which can mean a rather lengthy process.

"Every tour has had two or three new members - this one has four new ones who have come on board," he says.

"The process is not dissimilar each time. You know the roles that each character demands, and you hope that each actor will bring their own interpretation to it. That's how I start. I make notes - people whose work I'm being introduced to, or someone I've seen again and reminded me how talented they are - and then I make contact."

He then invites potential cast members to visit his studio in Hertfordshire and make a recording and then reviews it together with them.

"There's no magic formula. I've been thrilled with everybody I've had the privilege to work with."

And there have been some diverse cast members as well - tenor Russell Watson took on the role of Parson Nathaniel, initially created by rock star Lynott. Listening to their voices, there is nothing immediately apparent that makes you realise why both have played the same part.

"The album had been out for about 25 years when we did that first tour - people knew Phil Lynott, one of the most remarkable people I got the chance to know, and suddenly there's Russell, who has a huge opera voice. But we met, he came in to the studio, gave it a go, and it was a different passion - but it was passion. That's what I look for as a starting point - to know that somebody really wants to do it, and I can hear it in their voice."

Hollywood star Liam Neeson appears in holographic form, taking over the role of the Spoken Thoughts of the Journalist from Burton, but Wayne is at pains to point out that this was not strictly a simple desire for change.

"When we started touring in 2006, I was starting to see it differently. I'd come back to it with fresh eyes and ears, and it reminded me that it was the era of the black vinyl disc and there were only so many minutes per side you could fit on. I went back to the first script I recorded with Richard, and I had almost as much that didn't make it on to the album as did.

"I saw how audiences reacted to it as a live work, There were certain key ideas we had recorded with Richard, and so we made the decision to expand the script in places.

"When we got to the end of this process, the Journalist had 90 sequences, but Richard's recording has about 74, and his performance is, obviously, finite. I couldn't even consider the idea of asking him to come back.

"So it was with heavy heart that I made the decision. I know the sound of his voice, I had the privilege of working with him and getting to know him. In fact I was working on a separate project with him that he commissioned me to do up until a week before he passed away, so it wasn't a flippant decision. I felt that moving on in the way that I wanted to, I had to make that decision to move the story on."

Wayne is evidently sad about losing Burton's performance from the show, but is equally delighted to have Neeson on board; as he explains: "I now have two Journalists that have given me pure magic and commitment."

It'll be the last time the tour is seen in its current format, but Wayne promises news on a new incarnation for the show soon.

"It's an exciting new challenge, but a different direction," he explains. "I'm sure I'll have mixed emotions - eight years of conducting my own work with amazingly talented people has been a privilege."

Each tour so far has had tweaks, new effects and new visualisations, and this upcoming one is no different.

"We have Jason Donovan coming back for his third tour with us, but all the others are new. It amazes me how new ways of the same material can sound and be interpreted. There's a whole new song that will be heard for the first time - and there's a lot of new CGI and we're improving the 3D holography."

Plus there's a new character who'll be seen - the story's original author.

"For the first time, we will have HG Wells on stage with us, telling us his side of the story," says Wayne.

"We're very excited about it. He'll be seen and heard at three different stages of his life - at the start, one year after the story was first published, and his work is starting to become known; then at the start of act two, 20 years on, when World War One has just ended.

"Then the final time is him at the age of 79, just months before his passing, towards the end of 1945, and he's now handing the future over to us. He's done his bit and is invigorated by the challenges of the future. He's seen how the world invades one country to another - and maybe the world isn't very different to his story, in a way."

Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds is on tour around the UK from the end of 2014.

To post a comment, you must register and login.