Backbeat

24/02/2010

The Beatles live again @ Citizens Theatre

Backbeat
Citizen's Theatre, Glasgow
5/5

Sex, drugs and be-bop-a-lula were the unvarnished touchstones of the young John Lennon. And then there was Stuart Sutcliffe, his Beatle buddy, and Astrid Kircherr, the beautiful German bohemian so close but so out of reach…

Iain Softley’s Backbeat vividly captures the hormone-raging tempest of this ménage-a-trois set against the backdrop of the savage young Beatles at their most raucous on Hamburg’s notorious Reeperbahn.

And it lays bare Paul McCartney’s struggle to convince Lennon that Stu, musically so limited, was the weakest link in the chain gang.

John once sang that life is what happens to you while you’re making other plans.

And, unquestionably, Softley’s stage adaptation of his own 1993 film is a dramatic tour de force that brilliantly showcases the fork in the road that shaped the destiny of the world’s biggest band.

Backbeat, though, is not the story of the Beatles. Don’t go along to the Citizens expecting to join in a Fab Four singalong. Neither are the cast Beatle bootleggers – they don’t need to be.

Stuart, the Scottish Beatle who gave the band its iconic name, might have remained nothing more than a footnote in Fab Four folklore had it not been for the success of the movie. But it brought him to a wider, global audience.

Oddly, enough, I’ve never seen the film, which sounds almost heretical for a Fab Four obsessive like myself.

But it means I come to the Citizens show with a clean slate and no preconceived notions of what to expect.

And I’m glad, because nothing prepares you for the potency of a performance that is almost Lear-like in its intensity. I’m not embarrassed in the least to say that I dab away a few tears at the end, tears for two Beatles whose lives were snuffed out way too early.

If you’re a fan of the band, it’s hard not to get wrapped up in the raw emotion of Backbeat.

Alex Robertson is excellent as Stu, brilliantly conjuring up his mercurial James Dean persona and the struggle to reconcile his ambitions to be a great painter and his tumultuous loyalty to John.

And Andrew Knott really does nail it as swaggering tough-guy, Teddy boy Lennon, railing against the world and wrestling with so many inner demons

But, much as I dislike singling out individuals in what is a real ensemble powerhouse, Isabella Calthorpe is mesmerising as the elfin-like Astrid.

She catches the mood perfectly, especially when she forecasts the Fab Four’s future by telling Stu: “John wants the world and Paul will find a way to get it for him.”

I’m glad Softley veers away from the unsubstantiated undercurrent that allegedly ran through the highly-charged relationship of John and Stu. There’s no need.

I’ve always felt the pre-fab story of The Beatles was magic and tragic.

So go and see Backbeat even if you’re not a Beatles fan. I think you’ll love it…yeah, yeah, yeah.