I saw the opening night of the War of the Worlds play last night. When I reserved the tickets, I wasn't expecting much from a radio broadcast themed play. My friend is in the show and I wanted to be there for her.
Opening up, the set is simple and the director speaks with the audience about 1938 and what America's main issues were at the time. We were coming out of the depression and going back to work. The radio had become not only a source of entertainment, but a source of news and onsite news coverage.
The first scenes take you inside the radio broadcast and you see the news anchors, sound technician, readers, singers, and Mr. Orson Welles himself. The costumes and hairstyles alone take you back in history. The broadcast has a few funny jingles for commercials and singing supposedly at a hotel in New York (you see it live). The acting of the radio crew was fantastic and shows relationships outside of the scripts that they are reading. I loved watching the sound effects guy make all the creepy noises of the invading spacecraft. Some of it was just plain funny watching these people fool their audience into thinking it was a live news broadcast.
After a climax of action at Grover's Mill, NJ - the smaller curtians in the back of the stage reveal families reacting to the broadcast. The acting of the families in the background was good but the timing didn't flow in one of the scenes. Some of the lines were lost in just being far away from the audience. I thought the effect of those scenes worked in bringing out the reality of how the listening audience was disbelieving and then thrown into a panic.
The lighting (though unrealistic for the radio room scenes) was well done and effective in getting you to envision what the listening audience was imagining.
Overall, the play exceeded my expectations and (the play-goer that he isn't) even my husband enjoyed the show. To see it:
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www.newtowneplayers.com