Writer: Jon Fellowes
Something About Productions seem to have hit on a new way of presenting an artist’s songs and career: Paul Simon and George Harrison are already in their locker, with George their next tour from October. They are neither a tribute band nor a juke-box musical: nobody pretends to be the Beatles or the Plastic Ono Band and nobody enacts a partially true story.
In fact, the intent is very serious which is a strength of the evening, but also what stops it being truly memorable: even the programme is a serious document, with lists of Lennon’s studio albums and a remarkably detailed song listing. Jon Fellowes’ script is informative, well researched and only occasionally over the top, but Daniel Taylor is not the most exciting narrator, with his repeated, mildly irritating little gestures such as the “speech marks” or the wide spread arms. In truth, Taylor is the hero of the evening, carrying the whole show, singing some twenty Lennon songs with conviction, exhibiting signs of strain with the register with creditable rarity.
The show operates on the principle of a song-a bit of storytelling-another song, etc., but there is more to it than that. Jamie Jenkins’ video holds the attention, from the moment when the show’s poster, an image of Lennon, moves into ever-closer focus and then bursts into an impressionistic image of Liverpool during which the band enters; Act 2 is the same, but now it’s New York. The images for each individual song are less striking, but still appealing.
The songs are nearly all post-Beatles. In the first half, Mother strikes a poignant personal note and Jealous Guy offers an appealing interchange of Lennon and McCartney (which one is it about?), but the stand-out track to someone whose knowledge of later Lennon is limited is New York City, with the band really rocking for the first time.
The second half is mainly devoted to Lennon’s final album, Double Fantasy, though it was great to hear his take on the Ben E. King classic, Stand By Me. Four songs from the album follow each other, including Beautiful Boy and Woman, both fine songs, but both equally revealing of Lennon’s emotions. Then we’re into the all-but-last sequence at the Dakota Building in 1980, the band accompanying Taylor’s minute-by-minute account, followed by Imagine, especially moving in this context.
Joe Smithson as MD/lead guitar is on the button throughout, as are the other three band members, but it seems a pity that they are never brought into the action to a greater extent. Instead Daniel Taylor is up front all evening, narrating, singing, playing a bit of guitar – a remarkable feat of endurance! Until the encore, when the standing, gesticulating audience joins in with Give Peace a Chance, the audience seems relatively uninvolved, though appreciative.
Reviewed on 5th July 2025, at the end of a UK tour
The Reviews Hub Score
Seriously Lennon!
