***1/2
A classical celebration of the Beatles often overlooked classic.
This fun show brings together the brilliance of the psychedelic Beatles with a small orchestra by playing the album in its original sequence, bookended with a Magical Overture and concluding with the famous coda to Hey Jude as an encore.
The orchestra is essential to bring to life a selection of songs that were studio creations with all the audio trickery and unlimited time available to create these complex songs. Of course, none were ever performed live and probably could not have been accurately performed at the time anyway. With the range of an orchestra available, directed by Julian Ferraretto, the Beatle basic setup of bass, drums, lead and rhythm guitars, was able to bring to the fore the signature sounds to these tunes. For example, the trumpet in “Penny Lane”, the eerie strings in “Blue Jay Way” and the recorder in “Fool On The Hill”, not to mention the strange sounds in “Baby You’re A Rich Man”
With informative and enthusiastic introductions to the songs the whole show was simply great fun and there is no doubt that the audience lapped up the whole shebang. This is a very clever way of melding the nostalgia of the greatest pop band the world has ever seen with a celebration of one of their albums that these days is not as well-known as their other works.
This show successfully looks to right that wrong.
Gluttony
3rd March
Michael Prescott
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