London’s rooftops today rocked to the sound of The Beatles once more as the newly unveiled cast of Let It Be played a special set at the Trafalgar Hotel.
Emulating the famous 1969 gig played atop the Apple Corp building on Saville Row, Emanuele Angeletti, Gordon Elsmore, Reuven Gershon and Stephen Hill, who will play Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon and George Harrison in the upcoming show, entertained an audience of journalists and guests with a set including iconic tracks Hard Day’s Night, Twist And Shout and Let It Be.
The show, which opens at the Prince Of Wales theatre on 24 September, will bring a collection of the world’s most famous songs to the West End for the first time in a production that producer Jamie Hendry told Official London Theatre was all about showcasing those infectious tunes. “If you’re coming to see a Beatles show,” Hendry said, “you’re expecting to hear the songs you know and love. They’ve not been turned into a choral arrangement, they’ve not been turned into a dance number. The priority was to keep it all about the music.”
An international search was launched to find a cast that could handle the responsibility of portraying the fab four on the London stage. Ironically, it turns out, most of the cast already knew each other from working on the tribute band circuit. Nothing they’ve done previously, though, has felt like such a responsibility, according to Hill, who confirmed: “It’s got to be good. It’s got to be right. There’s the Bible, and then there’s the Beatles.”
There will, in fact, be a fab nine in total, as John Brosnan, James Fox, Michael Gagliano, Ian B Garcia and Phil Martin will alternate roles to keep the cast’s voices fresh throughout the four month run.
Let It Be, billed as a “media rich theatrical concert” coincides its London opening with the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ first single, Love Me Do, which was released on 5 October 1962. It features more than 30 of the band’s biggest hits, including She Loves You, All My Lovin’, Yesterday, Come Together and Hey Jude, and follows the world’s most influential pop performers from their appearance at the Royal Variety Performance through their only arena tour to Sergeant Pepper and Abbey Road.
It is, concludes Gershon, “a show for current Beatles fans and future Beatles fans”.
You can see the cast of Let It Be performing Hard Day’s Night at the top of the page.