And telling the tamer story when the real drama is bursting to invade the space needs clearer purpose. Putting songs by lesser writers into the mouth of a maestro is a big risk. As it is, it is a gentle narrative based largely on Cynthia’s own accounts. It could be an ingenious journey into the casualty of success or a major set-to between Cynthia and Yoko, reflecting two sides of John: the soft and vulnerable versus the dangerous and avant-garde, the ordinary versus the exceptional. Placing a minor character at the heart of a play is not new - it’s a kind of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern story: an also-ran lost in the shadows of an otherwise blazing drama. Only when John occasionally speaks using lines that will later appear in his songs is a good level of humour attained. Yoko, for instance, barely appears and nowhere does John exhibit his innate wit and brilliance, occasional quotes falling somehow flat in the absence of true character development. With Cynthia as the central figure in this saga, the play shines a welcome light on this delightful woman whom John unerringly selected for her sweet soul and steadfast devotion.īut the great piece of theatre it might have been eludes us. While Emily Guilfoyle charms as the young Cynthia and Marky Reader’s Scouse accent and assured guitar technique as John confirm the scenario, other characterisations of key figures are less convincing, delivering an approximation only of this already well-covered story of the birth of The Beatles, days of psychedelia and John’s tragic demise. Occasional lines from a Beatles song are risked and the whole tune of This Boy crowns the show, though transcribed as This Girl - do the song’s owners know? The music intersperses action with a bundle of ballads and cheery, foot-tapping songs created by Frankie Connor, Alan Crowley and Billy Kinsley as well as some golden oldies from the late ’50s.

Instead, this is the story of Cynthia Lennon, John’s first, much underestimated wife and the mother of his older son. This play though is not, strictly speaking, about The Beatles as such and, of course, any Beatles’ music is largely forbidden by the copyright holders. And, as writer and director Mike Howl has understandably judged, a Beatles play with music must be too good for anyone to miss.

ANYTHING to do with The Beatles is a dead cert when it comes to attracting an audience.

Play tell me why by beatles