Mars Comes To Earth (Again)

War of the Worlds Musical

Partial Recall, a blog on SF/F in Finland, announced:

In January 2013, Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds will play at Hartwall Arena in Helsinki. The producers promise good music and lots of special effects, including a 10-meter tall Martian Fighting Machine and a hologram Liam Neeson. Sounds entertaining. Tickets will be sold starting March 26.

Alas, the weblink is in Finnish, so I looked up "wikipedia war of the worlds musical". Huh. This isn't new? Just a new production:

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds is a 1978 concept album by Jeff Wayne, retelling the story of The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells.[1] Its format is progressive rock and string orchestra, using narration and leitmotifs to carry the story via rhyming melodic lyrics that express the feelings of the various characters. The two-disc album remains a bestseller, having sold millions of records around the world,[1] and was the 40th best selling album of all time in the UK with sales of 2,561,286 by 2009.[3] It has since spawned multiple versions of the album, computer games, DVDs, and live tours.

Why did I not know about this? The 1978 album had the Journalist spoken by Richard Burton! My dormmates clearly dropped the ball on this one -- too mesmerized by Hotel California methinks.

I tell you -- the world can sometimes be a magical place.

Dr. Phil