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The Beatles' music enjoyed by multiple generations through 'Let it Be!' musical

February 19, 2015

Beatles music lovers gathered Wednesday night when the musical “Let it Be!” was performed at The Wharton Center.

The musical consists entirely of The Beatles music and takes the audience through the different stages of Beatlemania.

“It’s a celebration of the Beatles music and we play favorite Beatles songs,” J.T. Curtis, who performs as George Harrison, said.

“Sort of going through their span from…their beginning recorded career playing in the cavern up to…the Ed Sullivan show…to Sgt. Pepper to Abbey Road,” Curtis said.

“We all grew up listening to The Beatles,” Chris McBurney, who performs as Ringo Starr, said. “I think we’re all just crazy Beatle freaks,” McBurney adds.

“The show was fantastic,” Media and Information sophomore Andrew Deneau said. “I definitely think it was a good…imitation of The Beatles,” Deneau said.

Though The Beatles have been broken up since 1970, the audience contained three generations.

“That’s cool about this show, is that it kind of spans generations,” McBurney said.

Deneau came to the performance for his father’s sixtieth birthday. Criminal justice Sophomore Livie Kleinow also came to the show with her parents.

“It’s really good, they’re really good,” Kleinow said during the show’s intermission. 

Curtis and McBurney have been with the show since it premiered on Broadway in 2013, but Reuven Gershon, who performs as John Lennon, has been with the show since its inception in London in 2012.

“It’s good to have a passion for the music you’re playing because then all of that stuff is a, is a joy, you know, whenever you discover something new that you didn’t hear before,” Gershon said.

McBurney said that they all studied extensively to prepare for their parts in the show.

“A lot of the preparation we’ve done has been because, pretty much all of us, have been into the Beatles since we we’re in single figures,” Gershon said.

The performance is all music, with small bits of witty dialogue thrown in, reminiscent of lines The Beatles would say.

Kleinow said her favorite act was when the cast dressed up as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Though the theater wasn’t completely full, the guys said ticket sales have been going well.

“In Toronto we did three shows in… [a] 4,000 seat venue and it was packed,” Neil Candelora, who performs as Paul McCartney, said.

The cast said they perform every night, sometimes two times a day, and never get more than one day off.

There is some downtime for Candelora and Gershon, who switch with another person playing the same part every other night. However, there is only one Ringo and George within the cast.

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East Lansing was the first United States stop on their tour, which goes until March 21st, ending at Vancouver.

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