Jeff Wayne's The War of The Worlds: The Musical Drama

By: H. G. Wells, Jeff Wayne

Narrated by: Michael Sheen, Taron Egerton, Theo James, Adrian Edmondson, Anna-Marie Wayne

Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's Summary

When H. G. Wells first published The War of The Worlds in 1898, the novel quickly became a sci-fi classic. The story of extraterrestrials from Mars invading Earth captured the public’s imagination, inspiring a famed 1938 radio broadcast with Orson Welles, several feature films, countless video games, and a best-selling musical concept album by Jeff Wayne in 1978, among others.

Immersing listeners in a world that is as thrilling as it is desolate, Jeff Wayne’s eerie and pulsating score brings the suspense, drama, and urgency of Wells’s original novel to a fever pitch in this Audible Original Drama. Michael Sheen headlines an ensemble cast of talented performers that also includes Taron Egerton, Adrian Edmondson, Theo James, and Anna-Marie Wayne.

©2018 Music Masters: Sony Music Entertainment

©2018 Existing compositions: Universal Music Publishing Group, Jeff Wayne Music (Publishing) Ltd

©2018 Newly composed music: Jeff Wayne Music (P)2018 Audible, Ltd

©2018 Newly composed music: Jeff Wayne Music (P)2018 Audible, Ltd

Wonderful production paired with a classic story.

I've loved Jeff Wayne's rendition of 'The War of the Worlds' ever since I was a kid. So once I heard of this audiobook I immediately had to get it. After listening to it in practically a single sitting I was not disappointed and was impressed with how this turned out If you're thinking about getting this, please understand this is not an unabridged telling of H.G. Wells' classic, nor is this a complete recreation of Jeff Wayne's musical; It is it's own thing. While the story beats are identical, with just extremely minor changes to help make the audiobook flow better. The narrative here is classic and well put together, as to be expected judging from the source material. As you can tell by the credits, there are a good deal of narrators, each playing individual characters from the novel, and each one does a spectacular performance. Michael Sheen does a jaw dropping job playing the main character (dubbed George in this rendition). You can feel the despair and loss as the story continues through his delivery. I was especially surprised with Anna-Marie Wayne's performance as George's wife. I wasn't familiar with her previous works but she blew it out of the water here. Everyone did a spectacular performance, and all the different characters were fun and interesting to listen to. Kudos all around. Now, we get to Jeff Wayne himself. His music from the Next Generation version of the musical is used all throughout the book. Individual music queues, sound effects and references are used in the appropriate time in the story to add the appropriate atmosphere. When the main character is at Horsell Common and you've heard Jeff Wayne's musical before; you already know what is being played in the background. However this isn't a complete copy and paste from the musical. There is some original or remixed pieces of music created for this, and that variation did actually keep me more interested. Also there is no singing in the audiobook, which means no Spirit of Man, Thunder Child, Eve of the War or Forever Autumn. There are call backs to it, but... we don't get to hear Justin Hayward singing about how the winter winds will be much colder in this rendition. I could go on about the sound design, and production quality, but this review is getting long enough as it is (I didn't mean to write an essay. Haha). If you can't tell, I absolutely adore this audiobook. It captures the fantastic story about an empire's fall that helped defined a genre, paired with the music we've loved so well. If you're a fan of the classic H.G. Wells' novel and have yet to listened to Jeff Wayne's musical, or if you're a fan of both. Do yourself a favor and pick this up. You won't be disappointed.

Unexpected and Amazing

I grew up in the 80s and 90s listening to the Jeff Wayne musical of War of the World on vinyl as my dad was a fan of it from the very beginning. WotW has been a part of my life practically since I was born, and it is important to me as something I shared with my dad who passed away about 12 years ago. I found out about this shortly after waking up this morning, and I had purchased it before I even had time to realize what I was doing. I do not regret this decision. The story is great (even with the deviations from the original, which I actually quite enjoyed.) The acting is great. The music is great. I just wish my dad was still alive so he could listen to this.

HG Wells meets Jeff Wayne

A more or less full cast production of the novel set against the backdrop of Jeff Wayne's wonderful musical score. I have the original version of Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds Musical Drama, and at first I missed Richard Burton as the Voice of the Narrator, but Michael Sheen did a wonderful job, as did the rest of the cast. I felt I was there in several spots. Very well done, very much enjoyed, very highly recommended if you're looking for a one sitting listen. And even if you're not.

Strange and wonderful

Let me preface my review by saying that I have always been an avid fan of nineteenth century European literature, especially British. Wells' War of the Worlds is along my favorites, I've read it several times. Also, I've never heard of Wayne's musical from the eighties, until I read about it in a review here a few days ago, nor am I a big fan of musicals. I almost stopped listening to this in the first chapter, but pressed on, and I'm so happy that I did, because I very much enjoyed this musical. My first impression was that the music did not match the story, in my mind I was expecting the music to match the period. The music is a strange mix of mostly eighties arcade video game music, with occasional eighties rock and disco-like music, and even a few hints of dubstep. While I was initially appalled that one of my favorite classics would be defiled in this way, it really grew on me and, strangely, I came to like it. The sound effects were incredible, they did a fantastic job of painting a mental picture of the details of the story and creating mood...dread, hope, wonder, etc. The acting was excellent, and although the story deviated from the original by using the protagonist's wife as a major character, it worked very well. One thing that I did very much dislike about this musical was the addition of things and ideas from the wrong century. For example, the use of a gender-neutral pronoun (a 21st century concept) and a mosque in Victorian London (which did not exist until the 20th century). These details may seem minor, but they distract the listener from the story and show that the writer did not do any homework before altering the original story. Overall, this was amazing and I would highly recommend it, but with a warning not to expect the original Victorian version, but rather a Rocky Horror Picture Show version.

Beautifully Done

First, I have been a huge fan of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds since the original came out in 1978. I have collected nearly every version and format released since then, including the computer game. This version is amazing. It focuses more on the drama instead of the music, but the music is still there and sounds as great as it ever did. This is a good thing as this is a drama and the music is the focus on all of the previous albums and concerts. The performances are all top-notch. This version really adds some great new elements to the story, as well as keeping of the best parts of the original. As a huge fan of the original I absolutely loved this. If you have not ever heard the original, I would suggest that you should listen to it first. I believe that you might enjoy this more if you did. This is just a suggestion though; I think you will love this either way.

Updated War of the Worlds

A very interesting remix. I have long been a fan of Jeff Wayne’s musical and having his additions on music to the book was striking. Michael Sheen as the journalist was fantastic as was Taron Edgerton. My biggest complaint was that the songs weren’t in this version, just the background and symphonic stuff. I kept breaking out into song when I expected the music to lead that way. Weird to see the heat ray shifted away from the Ulla that I am familiar with, but I understand the change. All told, well done!

A radio style drama is very fitting

Since this is based off of the musical, it finds a very natural home as a radio drama. Imagine the musical, but with the story fleshed out, foley sounds and instrumental music added and that is what you get. The cast performs brilliantly in telling the story with the music and sound effects. The music itself is very recognizable to fans of the musical- there are classic themes such as the Eve of the War, Forever Autumn and the Spirit of Man woven throughout. There is a slight update/difference to the music, for instance- Thunder Child's theme now includes some subtle (?!) dub-step, which actually fits very well and tastefully within the music, the Spirit of Man has a brass horn rendition that is very emotional, and many other classic themes have wonderful additions/differences, and yet still remain very recognizable. All in all this is an excellent rendition of the story with Jeff Wayne's oversight keeping it on track. I think it would work on it's it's own without prior knowledge of the musical, as it is very fittingly told as a radio style drama, but I will be interested to see the reviews of people who have no experience with the musical.

What a performance!

It is not what expected at all, but also what I was hoping for and so...so much more. The voice acting, background sounds and sound effects, it was all so effortlessly easy to immerse yourself into. Good job audible, this is beyond perfection.

It's different...

Less music and more story make for something different with plenty of callbacks. Still great.

Fantastic, a must listen

I actually had an older Audible version of this book - just a straight forward, unabridged narration of the book. Yawn... never finished it. This version of the book is something special - they really brought the story to life with the music and talented voice actors - no expenses spared for this production. I hope I can find more titles similar to this...

Great, but…

I love Jeff Wayne’s ‘The War of the Worlds’, and I love the source material from the great H.G. Wells - so in balance I should’ve completely loved this fusion of the two. And I kind of did. Except that for me it somewhat fell between two stools. There was far too much music for an audiobook (though to be fair it didn’t claim to be one); but not enough of the music in a single contiguous block to let you enjoy it as music. I do recommend it still as it was very good - but for most listeners there will be either too much or too little music. Or possibly both.

Stunning Interpretation of Jeff Wayne's Classic!

If like me you still get a small frisson thinking of the words, No-one would have believed . . . they drew their plans against us, then put this right on your wish list! I can still remember the sheer awe I felt as a young lad when I started to listen to the cassette tapes I had received for my birthday and Burton's chilling opening words came out of the speakers like it was yesterday. Forty years on and this new version had me absolutely captivated from start to finish. It's the same story, just completely remixed and with a lot of additional sound and detail. That sound is fantastic, like many of the great bands the bass is high in the mix giving it full expression and the use of stereo is superb. Definitely one to be listened to with quality headphones and preferably not in noisy areas to get the very best out of it. There are great riffs from that glorious score, thunderous explosions and more subtle sounds too. The overall soundscape is the best I have experienced in an Audible production. The voice acting is top quality. Anna-Marie Wayne, who is Jeff's daughter of course, as Carrie and Michael Sheen as the journalist give outstanding performances and the supporting cast don't let them down by any stretch of the imagination. I never thought that anything could match the original. This is different and stands in its own right but those forty years were suddenly a mere instant in time and I was transported back through the decades to that same feeling of excitement that the younger Simon felt. If you can, just don the headphones, turn off the lights, shut your eyes and crank up the volume! Absolutely superb!

Just brilliant

I love the classic version with Richard Burton but this is just brilliant with added dialogue it adds so much more to a classic I downloaded the pre order as soon as it became available and listened in one sitting I will be sure to listen to this book again It is in my top 5 audio books

Brilliant Jeff Wayne does it again!!

I hope Jeff Wayne never gives up with his adaptations of his wonderful classic. What a cast as well. Michael Sheen sounds very much like the late great Richard Burton. Brilliant cast. I wonder if Jeff Wayne had a hand in choosing them also. JUST BRILLIANT!! Highly Recommended

Very, Very Good!

Short review: Superb production of the book and the musical blended into a sweet mixture. If your a fan, you should buy it! Longer review: I'm writing this review having only listened to two chapters. I could have well done this after only one. It reminds me of an idea I had a only a little time ago: I already knew the book was superb, having read it numerous times, I already knew that the musical version was utterly superb, having literally grown up listening to it countless times over the years. Create a uber-masterpiece from the two masterpieces! Have the narrative blended with the goodness of the music Jeff Wayne created, but use more, if not all of the book. And they did it. But who would take the narrator/journalist role? This above all was most important, but who? When I listened to the sample, I actually thought they'd used Richard Burtons' voice somehow, then read that Michael Sheen had done it. Absolutely perfect! Adrian Edmonson is brilliant! I'm getting to know the rest of the cast as I go, but I know that they WILL be exceptional performances. You have to get something like this right, and I feel they've nailed it sweetly. Some slight niggles though, but this is mainly due to the use of the newer musical versions' music, the dance beat style portions just didn't feel right. Having said that I will say I eventually began to like the newer musical version, very well produced! Some of the books' greatest fans may not like this production much as they may say there is too much music for it to be called an audio book as such, and so its called a audio drama/book maybe? Maybe not a musical in the true form? Well they seem to use a good portion of music, and have used pieces in different places too. Nicely done! AND the BBC TV version of the book is just around the corner. Finally set IN THE RIGHT COUNTRY AND TIME PERIOD. Thankyou for the time taken to read this giddy fans mumblings. Thankyou to the good people behind this production. Now go buy it! Very Best Regards, Karl Hart

A Gripping way to listen to H. G. Wells classic

Jeff Wayne's The Musical Version of The War of the Worlds is a classic and must hear musical now this Musical Drama accompanies The Musical Version very well, I found it very gripping and at the end found I wanted more. The Musical Drama has the great instrumental music from Jeff Wayne's Musical Version along with great sound effects and audio acting. A gripping new way to tell the classic H.G. Wells story.

Sorry, poor sound control and random music

Firstly, I love his original War of the Worlds narrated musical version... but that hasn't been well merged into this. The music (instrumental only) snippets chosen for this are repetitive and random, particularly in the first half, often with too little spoken audible voice between. The spoken voice is far quieter than the music, so I'd be constantly turning the car volume up and down by 12 or more volume steps. some voices are quieter than others, Carrie's for example I'd have to turn up to the car's maximum just to hear. It could have been a great recording but it's not one I'll listen to again... I'll stick with the narrated musical version i bought nearly 30 years ago instead!

Oooo Laaaa

If you like the original musical version by Jeff Wayne, then this is a must, the mix of Story, Drama and Music, is Nostalgic and brilliantly retold.

Amazing

An amazing array of talent and very well put together. This is War of the Worlds as it should be heard.

The Combination I've Always Wanted

Finally a brilliant combination of the full oringinal story and haunting musical. An incredible achievement