Beatles' Abbey Road sessions recreated for new show at Royal Albert Hall
A new show at the Royal Albert Hall offers a faithful glimpse of the sessions that led to Revolver and Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
The creator of a new stage musical based on the Beatles’ Abbey Road sessions wants to introduce the Fab Four to the MP3 generation.
The Sessions at Abbey Road — at the Royal Albert Hall next year — will recreate the process by which albums such as Revolver and Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band were made in front of a live audience inside an exact replica of the legendary Studio Two.
The two-hour performance, described as a “musical documentary”, will span the Beatles’ career using period equipment, 39 musicians and eight singers.
The studio will be replicated, based on the recollections of studio chief engineer Geoff Emerick, but executive producer Stig Edgren told the Standard the actors would not be lookalikes of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
He said: “It’s the most daunting challenge of my career. The most honourable musical event I think I will ever be involved in. I really want to bring this to a new generation. I have 29-year-old twin daughters who have seen Beatles tribute shows and they always say, ‘Why are they wearing wigs?’ They said, ‘We’d love to see something cooler and different.’
“I wanted to do something that was respectful, that was a tribute in spirit but different from the other shows… My approach was more an accurate re-staging of the recording sessions.”
By: Sophia Sleigh
Source: London Evening Standard
