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65 reviews for:
Jeff Wayne's The War of The Worlds: The Musical Drama
Adrian Edmondson, Theo James, Michael Sheen, Taron Egerton, Anna-Marie Wayne, Jeff Wayne, H.G. Wells
4.17 AVERAGE
65 reviews for:
Jeff Wayne's The War of The Worlds: The Musical Drama
Adrian Edmondson, Theo James, Michael Sheen, Taron Egerton, Anna-Marie Wayne, Jeff Wayne, H.G. Wells
4.17 AVERAGE
Back in the 1970s, Jeff Wayne's musical version of The War Of The Worlds was a quirky delight. This new version is too, combining most of Wells' text with a lot of new music by Wayne to listen to between scenes and as atmosphere during some. Michael Sheen does a superb as the narrator, with a wider emotional range than Richard Burton did in the musical version - nobody hits certain tones quite like Burton, but Sheen is thoroughly engaging. So is the rest of the cast, with nary a dull performance between them. The whole work is as gripping as Wells could wish for. This is a really fun way to deliver a little lecture on contingency and hubris along with a ripping yarn.
adventurous
dark
sad
fast-paced
Strong character development:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
This was a seriously creepy story that was excellently composed and narrated
This was such an outstanding performance of a great book that I listened to the entire thing in one sitting. This is one of the rare reviews where the audio performance did impact my star rating - as it should have. This story, while a classic, would not be half as good without the enhancements to the atmosphere and depth of feeling that the narration, sound effects, and score add. I have never listened to an audiobook that has brought the story so palpably to life. A must listen for any audibook fan.
War Of The Worlds is something that I have heard about many times, primarily Jeff Wayne's adaptation, but never actually experienced. I've said before that sci-fi tends to be more miss than hit for me so it's something that I've tended to bypass at every opportunity. Until one day when I was scrolling through Audible and got an advert for a new musical drama version featuring some big names such as Michael Sheen and Taron Egerton.
This new adaptation, exclusive to Audible, features the musical scores from Jeff Wayne's incredibly popular version of the book by H.G.Wells. I am a little bit more familiar with the music so felt that kind of rush you get when experiencing something you love. My only real gripe is that it's pushed as a "musical drama" but this is slightly misleading. It's more of an audio drama: the story being narrated with sound manipulated to fill in the gaps and immerse the reader, but the lyrics are not present.
The manipulation of sound for this adaptation is truly incredible. The familiar elements from Jeff Wayne pop up when all hope really does feel lost. Where the visual is lost, sounds allow the listener's mind to run away with them. I found myself completely hooked the whole way through.
Michael Sheen takes on the role of the journalist who narrates the events of the alien invasion. Without a doubt he is the driving force and just utterly phenomenal. It's a testament to how good an actor he is that even in voice work he was able to convey one man's determination to simply stay alive and get back to his wife, voiced by Anna-Marie Wayne. She is equally as brilliant and you really get this sense of her also just trying to stay alive long enough to get back to her husband. It really felt like I was listening to something that actually happened. It was raw, tense, and just brilliant.
If you have an audible subscription, or are willing to get a free trial, or just make a one-off payment, I highly recommend you spend your time listening to this.
This new adaptation, exclusive to Audible, features the musical scores from Jeff Wayne's incredibly popular version of the book by H.G.Wells. I am a little bit more familiar with the music so felt that kind of rush you get when experiencing something you love. My only real gripe is that it's pushed as a "musical drama" but this is slightly misleading. It's more of an audio drama: the story being narrated with sound manipulated to fill in the gaps and immerse the reader, but the lyrics are not present.
The manipulation of sound for this adaptation is truly incredible. The familiar elements from Jeff Wayne pop up when all hope really does feel lost. Where the visual is lost, sounds allow the listener's mind to run away with them. I found myself completely hooked the whole way through.
Michael Sheen takes on the role of the journalist who narrates the events of the alien invasion. Without a doubt he is the driving force and just utterly phenomenal. It's a testament to how good an actor he is that even in voice work he was able to convey one man's determination to simply stay alive and get back to his wife, voiced by Anna-Marie Wayne. She is equally as brilliant and you really get this sense of her also just trying to stay alive long enough to get back to her husband. It really felt like I was listening to something that actually happened. It was raw, tense, and just brilliant.
If you have an audible subscription, or are willing to get a free trial, or just make a one-off payment, I highly recommend you spend your time listening to this.