By Dave Parsons
It seems every area of the country has a tribute band covering the songs of the biggest bands in music history. Most cover the songs, and some get into costuming where appropriate, but few tribute acts go as far as Beatlemania Now!
Beatlemania was a Broadway musical revue, a “rockumentary” that focused on the music of the Beatles. The play was advertised as an incredible simulation of the era of the Beatles and ran over 1,000 performances. With no script to tell the story, the show was 25+ of the Beatles songs telling their story. The Broadway show ran over 1000 performances and grossed more than $40 million dollars.
Today, the excitement of all of those days can be felt in the Beatlemania Now! Tour which runs a replica spinoff of the exact same show as the Broadway predecessor. The ‘Fab Four’ that pulled into Pennington’s in Jewett, Ohio consisted of Paul Bryck (John), Chris McBurney (Ringo), Chris Colon (George) and Bob Halligan, Jr. (Paul). Each member is a successful musician or songwriter of their own accord, bringing that Beatles magic alive on the stage. The band explained pre show that they were raised up on The Beatles music so to get to carry on and extend the legacy is a pure delight.
It is a bit of a difference between a Broadway stage and the stage of a restaurant/pub, but technology being what it is, the sports on the TV was switched to a wide screen viewer. As the lights dimmed, a tape of Ed Sullivan introducing the Beatles to the world on his show in 1964 ran on the show, and the show began with the Fab Four running between the tables to their place on the stage. The stage was set like it was that night in the Sullivan theater, the boys had the suits and ties in place, and from the first notes of “When I Saw Her Standing There”, the show was off and running.
The band took the audience on a jigorous ride through the catalog from that era including “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”, “Hard Days Night“, “Act Naturally”, before ending this portion with “She Loves You”. A video montage of era friendly clips played while the guys slipped into custom made costumes from the “Sgt. Pepper” LP cover, and started through a set from that era including the title cut and “With A Little Help from My Friends.”
The third costume change was a “little more to interpretation”, Colon explained pre show. In reality, the Beatles were already broken up by this point, and it was simulated what they would have looked like doing songs like “Something”, “Get Back”, and “Hey Jude”.
All totaled the crowd at Pennington’s were treated to 28 of the Beatles biggest hits, authentic staging and costumes, and multimedia interaction makes for a show that demonstrates why the Beatles catalog is one of the most enduring in music history.
Beatlemania Now! Setlist:
1 I Saw Her Standing There
2 I Wanna Hold Your Hand
3 From Me To You
4 Please Please Me
5 All My Loving
6 Roll Over Beethoven
7 This Boy
8 Hard Days Night
9 8 Days A Week
10 Can’t Buy Me Love
11 Act Naturally
12 Help!
13 I Feel Fine
14 Nowhere Man
15 Day Tripper
16 She Loves You
17 Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart’s Club Band
18 A Little Help From My Friends
19 I Am The Walrus
20 A Day In The Life
21 Got To Get You Into My Life
22 Revolution
23 Something
24 Don’t Let Me Down
25 While My Guitar Gently Weeps
26 Get Back
27 Hey Jude
28 Twist And Shout
