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I don’t usually fancy anything to do with science fiction. Science fiction plus music? I was curious to see how such a combination would work out on stage. So watching HG Wells’ original work come to life as a musical was a mix of interesting and dry. I enjoyed watching the orchestra come together, and I was especially paying attention to the violinists. You can tell they’re serious about what they’re doing. The way the visuals and some characters were projected on the screen still impresses me, even if by now, the full show would have been taken down. The Journalist, played by Liam Neeson, who appeared as a hologram, did a stellar job of narrating what was happening. I liked how soothing his voice sounded, I could listen to him read a story, every night. Heck, I just realised he’s lent his voice for a number of audiobooks.

What surprised me the most was how energetic the conductor, Jeff Wayne, was. At one point, he even made a slight jump/leap, my heart was pounding… acknowledging his age.

The theme song, The Eve of the War, is still stuck in my head. I’m pretty sure I also heard it being used elsewhere but I can’t recall now.

Nevertheless, I found certain bits challenging to digest. Nearly every scene and song was either too intense or sombre, particularly the sections right after The Red Weed came on.

The full musical was shown on The Shows Must Go on channel on YouTube, in honour of Michael Falzon for his contributions to the entertainment industry. Falzon succumbed to a certain form of cancer after a year-long battle. Falzon died somewhere in the final week of June 2020.