Review: Dallas Summer Musical's 'Let It Be'
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Do you have 60's memories of the Beatles? Personally, I have a ton, having grown up with them from the beginning. Outside of individual performances from solo careers, no one saw them together after the 1969 show on the roof of the London Apple Offices.
'Let It Be,' the current offering from Dallas Summer Musicals and Performing Arts Fort Worth, covers the Fab Four's 60's era and then speculates what many non-performed hits would have sounded like live after a decade apart.
A pair of old radios and small screen TV's are on each side of the stage providing historic footage and facts of the greatest and most influential group of the rock era who launched the British Invasion.
The first set was "The Moptops" playing early hits like "She Loves You, "Yesterday" and "I Feel Fine." The audience was feeling good, with many singing along to every song.
Neil Candelora is Paul; JT Curtis, George; Michael Gagliano, John; Chris McBurney as Ringo and Daniel A. Weiss, as the Fifth Beatle. They look and sound very similar to the original four accentuating each member's personality and stage movements. At the start they seemed stiff and unsmooth to the point of nervousness, but then I realized they were acting the way the Beatles were during those performances.
Next up was the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band period. The album was recorded after the band stopped touring and, to me, was the most innovative album ever recorded. The set design lighting, video and costumes were definitely psychedelic.
Then we were taken to Abbey Road, with four songs from the end of the Beatles as a recording group.
Part two of the show is where you imagine what a Beatles' show would have been like on John Lennon's 40th birthday, October 9, 1980. It's the new segment of the non-stop music tribute direct from London's West End and Broadway. The songs include hits from the four Beatles solo careers and surprises from the White Album, Abbey Road and rock classics. Toward the end of this segment the decibel level became extremely high, causing the night's only uncomfortable moments.
It was indeed fun and emotional, a historic review that covers the world's most successful rock n' roll band from their humble Liverpool beginnings through Beatlemania and their studio masterpieces.
Rock Let It Be at the Music Hall at Fair Park in Dallas March 7-19, 2017 and at Fort Worth's Bass Performance Hall March 21-26, 2017.
