Let It Be arrives in West End with recreation Beatles rooftop gig

Forthcoming Beatles jukebox musical Let It Be announced its arrival in the West End today (23 August) with a rooftop gig on the Trafalgar hotel.

The performance, which comes just over a month before the show opens on 24 September 2012 (previews from 14 September), featured hits including "Twist and Shout", "Hard Day's Night" and title track "Let It Be". The stunt echoes a set played by The Beatles in London in 1969 atop the Apple building.

Emanuelle Angeletti, Reuven Gershon, Stephen Hill and Gordon Elsmore as The Beatles.

The cast of Let It Be will consist of ten performers who will share roles across the performances. The four rooftop performers today were Emanuele Angeletti, Reuven Gershon, Stephen Hill and Gordon Elsmore.

They will be joined in the full performances by Ian B Garcia, James Fox, Michael Gagliano, John Brosnan and Phil Martin, and will be joined for some songs by keyboard players Ryan Farmery and Michael Bramwell.

Let It Be is the first UK musical granted the rights to use The Beatles' back catalogue, although Broadway musical Rain, from the same production company as Let It Be, has been running in the US since the '80s.

Speaking to Whatsonstage.com at today's launch, producer Jamie Hendry said: "I'm a huge Beatles fan and have been trying to do a show in London for many years but couldn't get the rights. I teamed up with some producers on the other side of the pond who'd done a show called Rain and convinved Sony to give them the rights for that, so we then persuaded them to give us the rights for the West End as well."

He said that the show is "not a history lesson", but it does contain recreation of key moments in the story of The Beatles, including the iconic Royal Variety Performance at the Prince of Wales theatre. "It's all about the music - trying to fit that around a story would've been wrong," he added, "attempting to shoe-horn the songs around a work of fiction wasn't right for us."

Several of the cast members have previously performed in Beatles tributes bands. Stephen Hill, who plays George, said: "Everybody who got the job knows each other, and when we got to London we looked at each other and said 'what are you doing here?'

"It's a huge responsibility bringing it to the West End. I don't think I'd want to know if Paul or Ringo was in the audience, it would be far too much pressure. There's The Bible, and there's The Beatles. It's got to be done right," he added.

- Kieran Corcoran & Theo Bosanquet

Related Content

Booking Tickets & Show Listings
	Let it Be Listing Page

Internal Links
	Beatles tribute show Let it Be opens at Prince of Wales in Sep - 30th Mar 2012 News
	Beatles show Let it Be transfers to Savoy Theatre in Feb - 29th Nov 2012 news
	Let it Be - 25th Sep 2012 reviews
	1st Night Photos: Stars rattle their jewellery at Let it Be - 25th Sep 2012 photos
	Review Round-up: Did critics catch Beatlemania at Let it Be? - 25th Sep 2012 roundup
	Opening: Let It Be, A Chorus of Disapproval, RSC's Much Ado & This House - 24th Sep 2012 news