Jason Donovan & Liz McClarnon Set for WAR OF THE WORLDS Tour in 2010

Whatsonstage.com is reporting that Jason Donovan and Atomic Kitten's Liz McClarnon will topline a new tour of Jeff Wayne's musical adaptation of HG Wells' The War of the Worlds, which will begin in Amsterdam on November 25, 2010 and play stadiums around the Europe. The tour will make stops in Antwerp, Dublin, Belfast, Newcastle, Glasgow, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, Nottingham, Birmingham, Bournemouth, London, Cardiff, Brighton and Wembley, and will conclude in Germany in January 2011.  Specific tour dates are expected to be announced shortly.  

This will be the second tour of The War of the Worlds - Alive on Stage!  The production, inspired by Jeff Wayne's concept album of the same name, and penned by Wayne, toured in 2006.  This successful tour was seen by over 500,000 people. 

The tour is shaping up to be quite a spectacle. Special features of the production include an 11-foot 3D hologram of Richard Burton (the original voice of The Journalist on the album), a three-ton, 35-foot tall 'Martian Fighting Machine' that fires heat into the audience, in addition to a new levitation effect.

Donovan, who is currently starring as Mitzi/Tick in Priscilla Queen of the Desert the Musical at the Palace Theatre in the West End, will play the The Artilleryman in War of the Worlds, a fantasist with aspirations to create a new race of humans underground after and alien attack.  He has been recently linked to the fast growing Australian show, Catch the Kanga. In the UK he has sold more than 3 million records, and his début album Ten Good Reasons was the highest-selling album of 1989 with sales of over 1.5 million copies. He has had four UK No. 1 singles, one of which was "Especially for You", his 1988 duet with Kylie Minogue. In more recent years, he has returned toacting on television and in stage musicals.

McClarnon, best known for her participation in the girl pop group Atomic Kitten, which has sold over 8 million records and singles internationally, will play Beth, the Parson's wife in the production. In August, McClarnon signed to 3 Beat Records, a subsidiary of All Around the World (through Universal Music). Her first single on the new label, "Not In Love", is due to be released in November, and is a track she has written herself, influenced by Kylie Minogue's electro and club tunes. She has additionally appeared on television in Celebrity Masterchef (she was named champion) and has been a guest panelist on shows such as The Wright Stuff, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, and Shooting Stars.

Additionally, the Moody Blues' Justin Hayward will return War of the Worlds in the role of The Sung Thoughts of the Journalist.

For more information visit www.whatsonstage.com.