Touring Beatles Musical Coming To East Bay

PHOTO: “Sgtpepper” shows Nate Bott (“John”), Axel Clarke (“Ringo”), Chris Paul Overall (“Paul”) and Jesse Wilder (“George”). Credit: Michelle Fairless.

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From Andy Nagle:

While many of us don’t have the opportunity to see the two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney or Ringo Starr, live in concert these days, the closest thing to watching an actual Beatles concert will be In My Life – A Musical Theatre Tribute to the Beatles at the Lesher Center for the Arts on Sunday, September 13 at 2 pm.

All tickets are 25 percent off until June 19 with the promo code “Fab4.”

The Las Lomas High School (Walnut Creek) string quartet will join the touring show on stage for five songs.

You mean just another tribute band? No, because not all tribute bands are alike.

This one portrays the Beatles—John Lennon (Nathaniel Bott), Paul McCartney (Christopher Overall), George Harrison (Jesse Wilder) and Ringo Starr (Axel Clarke)—as authentically as possible, from their singing to the myriad of guitars used throughout the band’s decade-long career.

While the great repertoire of songs bind this musical together, the audience also gets the opportunity to relive the most important moments of The Beatles’ epic legacy, which spans the entire 1960s period. The actors that portray the band members connect with the crowd through their lovable sense of humors and cheeky banter.

As one watches The Beatles progress throughout that decade, the band’s manager Brian Epstein (Murphy Martin) makes his presence known throughout the musical, narrating his side of the story starting from his discovery of the Fab Four at the Cavern Club in Liverpool up until after the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Epstein plays a very important role in this show, not only because he was the man who discovered the group, but he also influenced their personal touch with audiences and, of course, their fashion sense. Who could forget the image of the four dressed up in suits on their arrival at New York’s JFK Airport in 1964?

This show is not just about reliving the breakthrough Ed Sullivan Show performance on February 9, 1964 that 78 million people watched on television, or reviving their deafening and packed Shea Stadium concert in 1965, it also touches on the band’s intimate moments in the recording studio. The audience observes the four in the studio as they struggle to reconcile their creative differences after Epstein’s death in 1967, a couple months after the release of Sgt. Pepper.

The show in Walnut Creek is part of a 125-stop tour of the U.S. and Canada. The show has been touring since 2008.

Tickets may be purchased online at www.lesherartscenter.org, by phone at 925-943-7469 or at the theatre box office. The Lesher Center is located at 1601 Civic Drive in Walnut Creek, CA 94596.