Let It Be Review at Leeds Grand Theatre reviewed by John Burland

AS A Beatles fan for over 50 years, this was one show when the programme for the summer season at Leeds Grand theatre was published earlier this year that I knew that I could not miss. Let It Be celebrates the music of the world’s most successful rock ‘n’ roll band in a spectacular concert charting the band’s meteoric rise from their humble beginnings in Liverpool’s Cavern Club, through the height of Beatlemania, to their later studio masterpieces. Bursting with timeless hits, show-stopping sets, dazzling costumes - and a brilliant portrayal of the Fab Four from a talented cast of musicians – this production had it all.

The show has over 40 of the band’s greatest hits. When one considers that John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison were only in their early to mid-twenties when most of these songs were written by them and yet have stood the test of time for over half a century, one can only admire their amazing talent.

I was, however, left a little disappointed by this particular production. I think the main reason for this was the fact that I had seen The Bootleg Beatles a fortnight previously at the Grassington Festival and I don’t think that the four lads playing in Let It Be at The Grand were musically as good. I noticed immediately that Iain Hornal in the role of Paul McCartney was playing the bass guitar right handed whereas Paul is a left handed player and I would have thought that the management could have picked someone with these attributes. Also, in the Bootlegs show, they use both a string and brass section to accompany the band whereas in Let It Be this is done by one person using keyboards and synthesiser to simulate the strings and brass which just didn’t have the same feel to it.

Now don’t get me wrong, there were some excellent performances from the four artists in the show, particularly Iain in his solos of Yesterday and Blackbird and also from Reuven Gershon as John in Strawberry Fields, John Brosnan as George in While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Stuart Wilkinson as Ringo for his drumming on Come Together and Carry That Weight.

The show followed a similar format to that of the Bootleg Beatles in that it covers the Beatles career from 1963 to 1970 starting with early numbers like Please Please Me and working through their repertoire with costume changes to reflect the different eras. In the first half we had their early songs, the appearance at the Royal Variety Show where they performed the same numbers as had the Beatles in November 1963 including the fabulous Twist and Shout and then moved onto the concert at the Shay Stadium in American and finally up to the interval some songs from Sergeant Pepper. The second half took us through Magical Mystery Tour, The White Album, Abbey Road and finally Let It Be.

A very good concert but unfortunately overshadowed for me by the one I had seen two weeks previously.