No one would have believed that Jeff Wayne’s musical treatment of H.G. Wells’ novel would still be active 35 years after his album’s debut.
The prog-rock stays rooted in the 1970s, something the stage show’s CGI and pyrotechnics do little to counter. With Richard Burton indisposed it is left to Liam Neeson’s hologram to narrate the Martian invasion while Marti Pellow and Jason Donovan perform ‘live’.
The result is bloated, over-extended and epically portentous, yet not without moments of gob-smacking majesty.
