Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Let It Be @ The St. James Theatre

                  If you always wanted to see the Beatles but thought you missed your opportunity, Broadway has the show for you: “Let It Be.”  “Let It Be” is basically a concert performance of all your favorite Beatles songs including, “Strawberry Fields Forever”,” Revolution”,  “Yesterday”, “Day Tripper”, “Here comes the Sun”, and of course “Let it Be.”  The show is being performed at the St. James Theatre on W. 44ST Street in NYC.   
            
                Let It Be provides the audience with its very own versions of John, Paul, George, and Ringo.   The show takes you on a journey throughout the years with the Beatles.  The stars of the show perform the songs as if they were performing at a concert; playing songs from each album the Beatles had.  The “venue” changes with some different backdrops and pieces as we move through the years.  After each set, the curtain comes down and we get a little history of what era it is and occasionally a Beatle explaining the music they are playing.  We got to go from the beginning “Mop Top”, to “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, to “Abbey Road”, to their famous concert at  Shea Stadium. The show ended with the fan favorite “Hey Jude” which had the audience up out of their seats singing along

                   Although this production has a ton of similarities to the 2010 Broadway hit Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles, the tech is was separates the two productions. Rain tried to appear as the Beatles in the time of their fame, making it appear as if they were using technology from that time. But Let It Be brings a legendary band to the stage using the technology of the twenty first century. Jason Lyons lights make the audience feel as if they were in a rock concert of today and Duncan McLean's video projections helped set the different time periods that the Beatles lived through.

                The show was incredibly entertaining.  The audience was a mix of old and new fans alike, but one thing was certain: everyone was enjoying themselves. You could see the audience really get into the music and start to dance in their seats.  The performers were good at playing the famous songs and were pretty good at singing them.  They each acted the part of whoever they were playing quite well.  At times the audience acted like it was the height of Beatlemania all over again.

If you love Beatles music, and a good time, Let It Be is a must see.

Review By: James Russo

No comments:

Post a Comment