Ok, so I let myself be talked into going to see the musical version of War of the Worlds, on the promise it was supposed to be wizadry whizz bang eye popping special effects and an out of this world experience(!). Reallly, i have should have trusted my instincts.
Firstly, I'm the biggest sci fan unfan in the world, being seemingly alone in my belief that all the star wars movies are the world's most boring movies, however I thought that War's iconic status as the first of it's genre might give it credence and that the promised spec effects would make it worthwhile. Secondly, I'm not soo much of a fan of the sort of moody blues semi soft rock sound. But I went anyway.
Well the whole thing was totally bizarre. The show consisted of this puncy little video screen onto which were projected a slideshow of Richard Burton's talking head and various scenes in sepia which I presume came from the original movie version. The screen was partially blocked by a set of lights dangling in front, so we couldn't see the whole screen anyway. In front of the screen was a small stage, inhabited throughout by a rock band on the left and an orchestra on the right. The whizz bangery consisted of a single solitary prop in the form of a Martian fighting machine which was lowered from the ceiling and which just sat there and blinked red and green lights. Hello?? where are the heat rays I'd been expecting??The cast (of 5 !! - why was i expecting the cast of thousands??)each came out and sang a little number - (Shannon Noll was pretty average- he needs diction lessons )-Rachel Beck did a good job with very ordinary material.
So there we have it ....I paid 100 bucks a ticket ( luckily I'd vetoed the 160 bucks a ticket A reserve seats) for what was really like watching an old episode of Dr Who on the tele in sepia with a bit of live orchestra scrubbing away throughout!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
God knows what
Richard Jinman from smh was on when he reviewed it.
