EVERY so often, Liverpool becomes host to productions which pay tribute, even homage, to the music of the Beatles.
Indeed, this becomes more obvious during the renewed annual Beatlesfest at the end of August when bands arrive from all over the world and Mathew Street becomes the centre of a modern-day pilgrimage. Add a few more shows like Let It Be and the occasional Beatles-related classical concert to spice up the tourist offer.
So, when it comes down to celebrating the music of the individuals, there’s a certain poignancy when it involves John Lennon – naturally so given his untimely death.
Since then, there’ve been any number of stage and film productions inspired by Lennon’s life, starting with Lennon, which starred Mark McGann, at the Everyman in 1981, through to Nowhere Boy.
We can now include Lennon: Through A Glass Onion. Written by celebrated Australian dramatist John Waters and produced by Harley Medcalf, the show is part-concert, part-biography. More than that, it’s a collection of fine monologues featuring thirty-one well-known songs including Imagine, Strawberry Fields Forever, Revolution, Woman, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Working Class Hero, and Jealous Guy.
The lead actor this time is Daniel Taylor who’s gained recent acclaim in The Tommy Cooper Show and, also, played Mickey in Down The Dock Road at the Royal Court. Impressive credentials, then, and sure proof of his versatility. He looked the part too, clad in denim with rimless glasses and hairstyle, delivered with spot-on Lennon’s nasal Scouse delivering both attitude and self-mocking homilies in equal measure. Not an easy task before a discerning home audience but he was vocally accurate, including a well-honed playing of the acoustic guitar.
His co-performer is accomplished pianist Stewart D’Arrietta who furnished a remarkable set of backing tracks and harmonies. Looking very much like Indiana Jones at the ivories, and having the added bonus of being the musical director for The White Album Concert by The Beatles at the Sydney Opera House. His antipodean anti-hero credentials were very much on show, particularly when he strummed the naked piano wires during Strawberry Fields.
The stage dynamics on this show is best described as minimal. Indeed, the majority of stage effects were down to simple but highly-efficient lighting changes. There’s no fancy sets, no back projections, nothing to divert attention from focusing on Taylor himself as he took us on a journey which, ironically, begins at the moment of Lennon’s assassination. It’s almost as though we’re invited to witness his own personal flashback of his life at that critical moment rendered clear as glass, with each layer of Lennon’s persona being peeled back to reveal a multitude of often contrasting characters – musician, poet, clown, conceptualist, renegade, satirist, father.
Overall, both Daniel and Stewart produced a memorable evening which celebrated Lennon’s human frailties as well as his solo and collaborative output with McCartney. There were moments when you’d have sworn it was Lennon resurrected, it was that good, though it would have been improved with the inclusion of short pauses before some of the songs, if only to give the audience some time to reflect on the philosophical aspects of his personal life.
Finally, it’s useful to know that this production had the blessing of Yoko Ono so if she’s OK with it, then so were we. More than OK actually for, taking into account the rapturous audience response at the end, Daniel and Stewart did the man proud and ensured that his abiding legacy was kept very much intact.
9/10
Epstein Theatre, Hanover Street, until Friday April 29.
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