LIVERPOOL LEGENDS
Brewer the Reviewer
By TERESA BREWER
When Louise Harrison decided to produce Liverpool Legends in memory of her beloved famous brother George Harrison, of The Beatles, she did so in order to preserve the depth of love and peace inherent in his music.
“Love, is the one thing everyone in the whole world understands. Love is what my brother George was truly about. Love and peace.” She tells the audience.
Ms. Harrison educates them with her narration and a over actual 1960's video and photos played on screen. Her English accent infuses the audience with information. She also appears in person and tells stories and answers the audience members questions, between a few of the four acts that depict each era of The Beatles' careers. She speaks as if you were sitting with her at her kitchen table having a cup of English tea, sharing her family memories and behind the scenes stories of John, Paul, Ringo and especially George, including what it took to put this show together while finding their tribute artists, which she hand picked.
They had to look, sound and perform as close to the real Beatles, as was humanly possible. Personal nuances and behaviors had to be learned to show their unique personalities, sound and playing styles. Even the left handed playing had to be learned.
She has succeeded!
The performance, costumes, lighting and effects, match each era and the hits performed from the beginning of the Beatles' career, to the end days when Ono married Lennon, and then into their individual careers and short reunion. Each era from the sixties through the psychedelic era and into the Abbey Road days, rocked the house! Love of their music and love of the Beatles themselves was in the air.
Liverpool Legends stars Marty Scott as George Harrison, Davey Justice as Paul McCartney, Kevin Mantegna as John Lennon and Greg George as Ringo Starr. The first act opens with the guys dressed just as the Beatles were as they made their television debut on the “Ed Sullivan Show” in 1965, playing those now classic and great song like; “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” “ All My Lovin,” and “I'm in Love with You,” just to name a few.
The second act opens with the guys dressed just as The Beatles were the following day, when they made history and set a record as the first band to ever use any stadium for a performance. They packed Shea Stadium with over 20,000 screaming fans in attendance when they made their first U.S. tour, singing “Can't Buy Me Love. ”
The orchestration is performed stage right in the background by Bob Dobro, who masters the keyboards. Dobro is introduced in the third act as the orchestration in the songs from the “Magical Mystery Tour” highlighting his skill as a keyboardist.
In this act they are in their Sargent Pepper costumes, as they perform the hits from the “Magical Mystery Tour” and the psychedelic era begins.
The fourth act opens with pictures of George and with Louise narrating; “My brother climbed to the top of the material world and needed to find peace...” Scott is captivating as his solo performance begins the act. One can't help but feel the anguish Harrison must have felt when he wrote the opening song.
When the rest of the band joins him onstage, the mood picks up and the humor begins again. It is obvious that the sounds of the Abbey Road days are reinacted. “Hey Jude” gets the audience cheering and screaming as they move their bodies and glo sticks to the music. When it's time for the “Na Na Na Na Na Na” the audience joins in right on cue. The symbiotic energy is contagious!
Together and individually, Scott, Justice, Mantegna, and George's performances are excellent and NOTHING in this show is canned. These artists each play their instruments and sing in perfect harmony with each other, with such skill and precision, that if you close your eyes and just listen, you can't tell the difference between them and the real Beatles. The humorous banter between them, brings the show to our earthly level with a realism that is hard to find in any show where the music is canned and not live as it here.
George looks and sounds so much like Ringo, which is more than an advantage, making him the the brunt of such jokes as “even with a million dollars worth of plastic surgery, he still ends up looking like Ringo Starr. With a nose like that we could rule the world!” And he's a left handed drummer too. Did you know that Ringo got his name from all the rings he wears? That's an intimate detail which once revealed, educated this reviewer as well as the rest of the the audience.
Justice seems a little stiff only when waiving to the audience after he passionately performs the solo's of McCartney. He shines and seems more relaxed when he sings and plays guitar, which he had to learn to do left handed. He did so by using a childs exercise book. Hearing him do “Yesterday” brought tears to my eyes as I remembered when....
Scott's performance of Harrison, displays a sense of quiet solitude. A yearning for peace and the subtle enlightenment attained by the spiritual quest Harrison took after the breakup of the Beatles, when he opens the fourth act alone with long hair and simple blue shirt and jeans singing “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” His music now showed the eastern influence of his quest when he added the first sitar, to rock and roll, changing it's sound forever. This was another first in the years during their lifetime and careers.
Mantegna's stage presence is very high energy and a sight to behold. It jumps right out at you. His voice shows his passion as well as his guitar and piano skill. He portrays a much more exuberant Lennon than this reviewer can recall, but high energy is necessary when appearing before a skeptical critic and a packed house. His presence jumps out at you, especially when he's dancing around and invites the audience to do the same.
If you weren't around when the Beatles released their first single “I Want To Hold Your Hand” on 45rpm records, (which soared the charts and out sold Elvis, threatening his title as the King of rock and roll), or if you didn't see their American television debut later on “The Ed Sullivan Show” on February 9, 1964, or see them on their second U.S. tour, which started on August 15, 1965, or have the pleasure of growing up to their music, then this show is your opportunity to see and feel just how great they were.
The only thing missing were the mobs of crying, screaming, teen aged girls reaching out to touch just one, and the armies of police and security holding them back. But perhaps they too will come in time.
For those of us that were in our youth back then, this show brings it all back with an implosion of memories, excitement and love for what the Beatles meant to us all and how their music not only influenced, but impacted our lives. The Beatles live again through these very talented young men and there is probably no one more qualified to produce this show than Louise Harrison.
Parents and Grandparents will love the educational experience this show offers in it's musical history factor. It's a must see on your list of Branson shows to see. Just a forewarning though.....
Don't hold back! You'll want to get up and dance in the aisles, “Twist and Shout” sing out and join them on stage just as the audience did at this viewing. Liverpool Legends IS today's ultimate Beatles experience!
(c) Copyright 2008 BluesBabe Enterprises Inc & Teressa Brewer Productions. All Rights Reserved.
All video and photos are by Teresa "Teressa" Brewer.
