The Beatles Storm Broadway with ‘Let It Be’ at St. James Theatre
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“Let It Be,” the concert show created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Beatles, is coming to Broadway this summer.
The original production continues to play at Savoy Theater in London. It opened at the Prince of Wales Theater last fall but later transferred to its current home. The Broadway version will open at the St. James Theater on July 24, with previews beginning July 16. The show is scheduled for a limited run that will last through the holiday season, closing on December 29.
The show documents the career of the Beatles from playing small clubs in Liverpool to superstardom, and features live performances of songs including “Twist and Shout,” “Drive My Car,” “She Loves You,” “Yesterday,” “Come Together,” “Hey Jude” and “Let It Be,” among others. In fact, samples of 40 Beatles songs will be featured in the show.
Additionally, the show uses “state-of-the-art projection technology and 3-D sound to put audiences at the heart of the Beatles’ meteoric rise from their humble beginnings in Liverpool’s Cavern Club, through the heights of Beatlemania,” according to a press release.
This won’t be the first time the music of the Beatles has come to Broadway. “Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles on Broadway” ran from 2010 to 2011. Additionally, a show called “Beatlemania” ran from 1977 to 1979. Additionally, the Cirque du Soleil production “Love” continues to run at the MGM Mirage in Las Vegas, where it originally opened in 2006.
Billboard notes that the timing of the production comes when many Broadway productions are struggling and ending, but also while similar concert runs are proving successful. These include concerts by Barry Manilow and Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons. Of course, the latter served to complement the hit “Jersey Boys,” which tells the story of the rise of the Four Seasons.