Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of 'The War of the Worlds' (2006)

I was curious to watch this DVD of Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of 'The War of the Worlds' and thought to give it a try, because the price was not much. I must say first that I never like alien stories, although I do enjoy Doctor Who very much. I have never watched other versions of The War of The Worlds movie and I have never read the book by H.G. Wells. However, I like musicals such as Les Misérables, The Phantom of The Opera, Blood Brothers, Into The Woods, Jane Eyre, Rage of The Hearts, Aspects of Love... and many more of them; and in where I live, musicals shows are rare; so I very much longed to see this DVD of Jeff Wayne's musical, which was recorded live on stage - and not some poor film version where they have change all backgrounds. The reviews were all positive, so I had a high hope on this.


However, the show was not what I had expected. The music is very pop - although I am not sure if it matters much, because I like La Révolution Française, which is a rock opera. I think what bothers me much is the number of repetition of the songs. A 3D head of Richard Burton appears on a big screen on stage, to function as the narrator. This big screen is like what we see on cinema and I don't like this. It shows everything: the alien planet, the ship, the burning village, etc. I like musical theatres because I love to see the tricks they do on stage, how the backgrounds change. Like in The Phantom of The Opera: front stage, back stage, underground, roof; are performed on a single stage. In 'The War of The Worlds' I don't see such things.

The story is also not as rich as I have expected, because there are times when only pop music can be heard [i.e. the narrator & other characters don't have any lines to read or sing].