The immersive Jeff Wayne’s The War of The Worlds: The Experience, London, has been forced to close its doors after a £400,000 upgrade to its venue and production.
The closure was caused by the closure of Ellipsis Entertainment, the company which was licensed to operate the experience.
The shutdown follows a previously unannounced but substantial investment in its VR sequences and technology. A statement on behalf of Jeff Wayne and the War of the Worlds team said: “What makes this particularly painful is that the Experience had just undergone a £400,000 upgrade to the venue and production that we were due to announce imminently.
“We rebuilt both major VR sequences from scratch using Unreal Engine and next-generation headsets, added new scenes, introduced a track to The Red Weed Bar, reimagined the Royal Engineer scene, and for the first time Jeff Wayne appeared within the experience himself. This was not a production coasting on its success. This was a production investing ambitiously in its future. That investment deserved far better than this outcome.”
The Jeff Wayne Music Group attended the venue, met with the production’s staff and performers, sharing its intention to take on the production and preserve the experience.
“We did everything in our power to keep the Experience running and to protect continuity for the production, the staff, and the audience”, the statement continues, “As part of those efforts, Jeff personally covered the Ellipsis staff and actor payroll of approximately 60 people during this period, determined to protect the livelihoods of the people who had given so much to this production while we worked to find a way forward. However, we were informed late last night that due to legal and insurance requirements, the venue could not continue operating under the current structure. As a result, we were left with no option but to close the production.”
The experience won 15 industry awards, was rated as the world’s top-rated immersive experience on TripAdvisor for five years running, and become a Guinness World Records title holder for the longest theatrical run of a musical immersive theatre production.
The statement closes: “The War of The Worlds is not going away. Our touring concert productions continue as planned. Behind the scenes, we are actively exploring ways to bring the immersive experience back in a different way. We are truly sorry to be delivering this news.”