Let It Be
Tickets from $30 Buy Tickets
Cititour.com Review
Broadway still hasn’t recovered from Beatles mania. But after Let It Be, the second Fab Four tribute musical to arrive on the Great White Way in the last couple of years (only two years after the last one, Rain, closed), it might be time to let that infatuation subside. Then again, with Motown: The Musical racking up standing-room-only business, you can see why producers would consider a concerts-through-the-years show a sound investment, if not exactly a creatively invigorating work of art.
Unlike Motown, Let It Be at least doesn’t try to patch together a narrative about John, Paul, George and Ringo’s rise to fame. Between “concerts,” and costume changes, we’re taken back to an analog era with absurd 1960s commercials (including ones for Pall Mall cigarettes and Carnation Instant Breakfast) and clips of counterculture youth gathering and protesting. But the main goal is to pack in as many Beatles hits as possible, as if producers expected audience members’ enjoyment to be in direct proportion to the number of songs performed. And there are a lot. Re-creating their Ed Sullivan appearances, they perform “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Yesterday.” For their legendary 1965 Shea Stadium concert, they rock out to such songs as “Ticket to Ride” and “Twist and Shout.”
The performers are a talented lot, especially the fine-voiced Graham Alexander, who played Paul McCartney at the performance I attended. (Cast members alternate.) But the whole point is re-creation rather than interpretation, whether it’s their Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band costumes (the only sartorial credit is for “costume supervisor” Jack Galloway) or the Shea and Sullivan sets (from designer Tim McQuillen-Wright). Since the attention to detail is impressive, it’s a shame that an air of desperation hangs over the show. I was tapping my toes, bopping my head to the music, generally enjoying myself, as others around me seemed to be, but the performers were quite insistent that we stand and clap for certain numbers. No faith that a clap-along might evolve on its own? At one point, when we were already doing just that, Ryan Coath, as John Lennon, wanted us to scream, too.
And ultimately, that’s the problem with Let It Be. What could be a nostalgic musical trip through the ’60s, one that traces the slowly dissolving innocence of this era, tries too hard to be the second coming of the Beatles and becomes the musical equivalent of a paint-by-numbers project.
By DIANE SNYDER
Visit the Site
http://www.letitbebroadway.com
Open/Close Dates
Opening 7/24/2013
Closing 9/1/2013
Preview Open/ Preview Close Dates
Preview Opening 7/16/2013
Closing Open-ended
Box Office
212-239-6200
Theatre Info
St. James Theatre
246 West 44th Street
New York, NY 10036
Map
Comments
Sign up for our newsletter !