Let It Be

I have heard so much about ‘Let It Be’ but have never got round to seeing it, that was until Monday 25th January where I went to see it at the Churchill Theatre.

Let It Be describes itself as ‘a celebration of the music of the Beatles’ which is essentially a Beatles tribute concert. There is no plot, no Beatles anecdotes with literally just 4 guys dressed as the Beatles singing Beatles songs. This is not a typical theatre show as from the start you are encouraged to sing along, get on your feet and dance with a much more relaxed atmosphere than is normally found in a theatre auditorium.

The show does follow the Beatles journey chronologically from their early days in the Cavern Club to them making it in America and the psychedelic days. I did enjoy the 2nd Act more as the lighting and production appeared to grow bigger and bigger alongside the Beatles rise to fame. I also enjoyed some of the stripped back acoustic numbers such as ‘Yesterday,’ which let the performer’s voices really shine through.

The cast is made up of Paul Canning, Iain Journal, John Brosnan and Luke Roberts as the members of the Beatles. They easily sound like the Beatles and from the auditorium they have more than a passing resemblance. Even little details have been considered such as the fact that Paul McCartney played the guitar left handed, and therefore so did Iain Journal. With Let It Be focusing so firmly on the music the sound is paramount and the sound designer and engineer did a great job with the balance being well executed throughout the whole show.

The set is interesting with the cloths changing as time goes on a film being played during scene and costume changes on TV sets round the proscenium. There was a bit of a wasted opportunity for this as whilst we saw the Beatles progress through time there was very little done to set the scene and the establish a backdrop to this progression.

Let It Be is, of course, aimed at Beatles fans and as someone who would not consider myself a ‘fan’ the show didn’t bowl me over. That being said at the end of some numbers there were scattered spontaneous standing ovations and by the end of the show a large proportion of the audience were on their feet with applause. I have to admit that I wanted more from this show rather than just a hit parade.

Other reviews you may like: Top Hat and The Producers both at the Churchill Theatre.