A 40-ft fighting martian, a giant 3D head and opera singer Russell Watson. We can't deny the stage version of Jeff Wayne's War of The Worlds musical will be interesting.

Russell, recent winner of BBC singing contest Just The Two Of Us, revives the role of Parson Nathaniel.

The epic production also stars Moody Blues frontman Justin Hayward, who appeared on the original Seventies recording.

Another original star, late Hollywood legend Richard Burton, is back as The Journalist - his voice synchronised to a 3D head suspended over the stage.

"We are digitising images Richard Burton's late wife provided for us," explains Jeff.

"The whole process is that there is a gentleman who looks uncannily like Richard Burton.

"With make-up and bits and pieces he really becomes a genuine-looking lookalike of Burton. He is filmed and the digitised images go over him.

"Then he sits for a sculpture of his head, which gets projected onto this 3D head - and it becomes Richard Burton."

A mixture of a stadium rock concert and musical theatre, War Of The Worlds uses projections, CGi animations, still images, lazers, pyrotechnics and surround-sound to recreate the piece.

Featured for the first time will be a prequel, which is already animated and scored. Set on Mars, it explains why the Martians chose to invade Earth.

After a meeting of the Martin elders, the first lot leave Mars and head to our world. The stage then fades to black, ushering in the narrator, Richard Burton and the introduction.

A full-size Tripod machine designed to be a recreation of Well's original vision is set to dominate the stage. It fires a heat ray, has a swiveling hull and tilting telescopes.

Since its original release in June 1978, Jeff Wayne's musical version of HG Well's novel has grown into a true cult classic.

The double Ivor Novello Award-winning album features a blend of prog rock and classical influences, coupled with a narration from the Burton. This is the first time it has been staged as a full live production, although the idea was origianlly discussed 28 years ago.

"There were several previous attempts to put on a large scale concert presentation on the road and we got close on a few occasions," says Jeff Wayne.

"Fortunately, we are now in a position to achieve many things technologically that we couldn't budget for 20 years ago."

The live tour also features three generations of the Wayne family. Jeff will be conducting the 48-piece orchestra and The Black Smoke Band.

His father Jerry will be heard as NASA Mission Control in the dramatic Epilogue which closes the album and show and Jeff's daughter, actress Anna-Marie Wayne, will be featured on huge on-stage video screens as Carrie.

Pink Floyd's legendary set designer, Jonathan Parke, will be bringing the Martian invasion to life.

Starts 8pm, tickets cost £39.50. Call 0870 9009100.