Ponder Post: The Beatles with Multitasking

Monday night, Frank and I went to our local Bankhead Theatre to see a tribute to the Beatles performed by the band Abbey Road. The four musicians were look-alikes for John, Paul, George, and Ringo and did a convincing job of acting with the mannerisms of each Beatle. It was not just a concert. A fifth actor, playing Beatles manager Brian Epstein, narrated little cameo scenes in between the musical numbers. The show in this format gave a bit of insight into the 8-year segment of the Beatles group performance history as they rose to fame in the music industry.

The scene synopsis for the show started with the Beatles discovery by Epstein in a Liverpool club and concluded with their final performance atop the Apple Corp building in England.

I had not realized that the Beatles' manager died at the young age of 32 in August of 1967, after managing the group for only 6 years. It seems like after his death the group dissolved into a collection of individuals.

The cement for the group had not been Epstein alone and his death was not the cause of their decline. Rather the Beatles no longer wanted to tour or perform in public. It was unclear whether it was the strain of travel or that they felt with all the screaming at locations on the tour and during the performances that their music could not be heard. Even before his death, Epstein was struggling to get the Beatles to accept engagements and they were refusing. It does appear that squabbling amongst themselves did emerge after his death, but whether that can be attributed to Epstein's absence or to the inevitable is debatable.

The costumes, especially the brightly colored Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band outfits, were very well done. The actors' caricature presentations of John, Paul, George, and Ringo were uncanny. The music at the show was good, and a string quartet of high school students from the neighboring town did a superb job as the classical background music for Eleanor Rigby. I did prefer the first half over the second. I lost my fondness for the later Beatles' music when they went into their more raucous experimental mode. What I really enjoyed though, was a slide and movie show projected as a back drop to the performers. Scenes at Kennedy airport when they first arrived in the United States were memorable. There were fun scenes of the Beatles clowning around, clips from the Ed Sullivan Show performance and some of their movies, and psychedelic sequences accompanying the Beatles' later music. Some snow play shots were exuberantly reminiscent of a carefree bunch of young men just having a ball. It was like Frank and I were revisiting some days of our youth. Ironically, as Frank pointed out, the cast playing the Beatles and their manager had not even been born yet at the time of Beatles' popularity.

Frank and I are glad we went. We were home soon enough to stay up and watch the final competition of Dancing With the Stars that we'd recorded earlier. (It would appear we have very eclectic taste in entertainment.) Our two favorite finalists were Riker Lynch and Rumer Willis. Here they are in their respective Captain Jack Sparrow and Ursula costumes from Disney night on the DWTS show.

Here is Riker's Disney night performance recorded onYouTube

Here is Rumer's Disney night performance recorded on YouTube.

Frank and I used our cell phones to vote for our favorite during the intermission at the Beatles show. Now that is multitasking that would make the entertainment business proud!