Jeff Wayne on The War of The Worlds

How will the theatre version of The War of The Worlds be different to the arena version?

We will have some iconic ingredients and some brand new ingredients – which are secret for now. But it’s more about the scale of what you can do with the space. We’re not trying to shrink it – honey I shrunk the martians was never the intention. We are trying to use the space that a theatre offers and immerse the audience on a much more personal basis.

Presumably the martians will still be in it?

The arena production martian fighting machine is about 35 feet tall, it weighs just over three tons and it lands from a hidden position in the lighting riggs. It fires real heat rays and is really impressive. We intend to retain that. But one thing I’ve learnt is that materials have changed in the years since we designed and built our fighting machine. So we’re now looking to be able to get it to walk and to do other tricks. There’s more people in the production too, there’s an ensemble which hasn't existed previously.

Will you be appearing?

I love conducting so I’ve never missed a show on the arena tours of eight years touring it and I’ll be doing the Dominion run, which is going to be fun. I think from a musician's point of view, whether you’re singing your songs or in a band performing your own music, conducting your own music is about as good as it can get. It’s the best seat in the house. It’s a serious work out as well, doing eight shows a week.

Richard Burton was your original journalist, what was it like getting him on board?

Everyone wanted a voice that was immediately recognisable. Richard was at the very top of our list. It just so happened that when I had finished the first draft of the piece, he was starring in a play called Equus in New York. So I sent him a copy of the draft and asked him to be in it and he quickly got back to us and said yes. He had a reputation as a hell raiser but the guy that arrived in the studio was not only on time, he was fully prepared and he completed everything and a lot more that didn’t make it onto the album in one full day. He was a delight to work with and we have some outrageous outtakes.

Have the 3D special effects changed over the years?

On every tour something new has come along and yes, you learn, you improve. The first tour we had Richard with a 3D talking head. Liam Neeson became involved and working with Liam as a living actor gave us one more dimension which was a full body holographic performance that was seen on centre stage.

People often describe it as a prog rock version – would you?

I was simply composing whatever I was hearing in my head. The only concept, if you want to call it that, is that when the story is told through the eyes of humanity it’s more acoustic and the string writing is symphonic and when the story is told more through the eyes of the martians it’s far more aggressive, it’s more electronic, guitar orientated.

What drew you to the original story?

I fell in love with HG Wells’ dark Victorian tale. It had relevance when I first read it and even more relevance today. Behind the tale that HG Wells wrote of an invasion of Mars into the Victorian world of England are the core ideas of invasion and faith.

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of The Worlds runs at the Dominion Theatre from 8 February 2016.