at the Garrick Theatre
More a brilliantly polished, professional Beatles tribute concert than a piece of West End theatre, Let It Be charts the chronology of the Fab Four from their early days performing in The Cavern Club, through Sgt Pepper, on their Magical Mystery Tour, and all the way to Abbey Road. In a show where taking pictures, standing up and whooping loudly are, “strictly encouraged,” the production is a sublime celebration of everything, “Beatles”.
The company of Let It Be are outstanding; despite some rather suspect-sounding accents, and some even more suspect-sounding jokes, their vocals, charisma and musicianship are exemplary. They play, sing and move in ways that expose day after day spent perfecting authentic tone and mannerisms, and the result is clearly impressive. Maintaining this authenticity, it is wonderfully refreshing to see all of the music being created live on stage, particularly by Emmanuele Angeletti on a very Paul McCartney-esque left-handed guitar.
Also fantastic are the lighting and visual effects from Humphrey McDermott (lighting director) and Duncan McLean (video designer). It would be easy for the relatively simple sets to feel very static, but the graphics projected onto the rear of the stage inject a little magic, and really are worth the price of the ticket in themselves. They are a fabulous fusion of modern technology with ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s imagery, stylised, distorted and given the occasional whack from Maxwell’s silver hammer.
Those who are looking for a fun evening out, wanting to re-live the magic of Beatlemania, or to experience it for the first time, will leave the Garrick raving their flares off.
On a personal note, I have the kind of voice that would make even Louis Walsh curl up and cry. So being given the chance to sing and dance, in public, without anyone else even being aware of the screaming cat garbling out mis-heard lyrics, was such a treat. Yet as liberating as it was to be able to do this, it did create a slight practical problem. In a theatre sloped to accommodate theatregoers watching the stage from a seated position, when everyone stands, a significant portion of the audience are unable to see the stage through the inconveniently opaque head of the person in front of them. Throw in mobile phones being held in the air, and the more vertically challenged amongst us lose most of the stunning visuals.
I am as yet undecided as to whether or not I like the audience being encouraged to take photos and to “Tweet and Shout” throughout the show, largely because I find it distracting and irritating in any theatre. But whilst, of course, it was distracting and irritating, it absolutely added to the hysterical sense of Beatlemania.
Those who go to see Let It Be expecting a West End musical, will probably be bitterly disappointed. However. Those who are looking for a fun evening out, wanting to re-live the magic of Beatlemania, or to experience it for the first time, will leave the Garrick raving their flares off.
In conclusion, Let It Be is so. Much. Fun.
I was fortunate enough to attend this event with a lovely group of #LDNTheatreBloggers, and would like to thank officialtheatre.com for arranging the evening.
For tickets and information, go to: letitbelive.com