Theater Review—

‘She Loves You’ A Pure Delight

By Julie Stern

BRIDGEPORT — This past weekend my son and I took five kids to Bridgeport’s Downtown Cabaret Theatre to see a reprise of She Loves You: A Musical Tribute to the Beatles. As five starry eyed children boogied to the parking lot after the show, Andrew, a fourth-grader, asked “Are you going to review this one, Grandma?” When I said yes, and asked what he thought I should say, he ruminated for a minute and said “I’d give it an A-plus.”

To which first grader Elizabeth added seriously, “With a star and a smiley face.”

This is not to say that She Loves You is a children’s show. Rather, my son, who had his own garage band by age 13, has poured lavish attention into shaping his children’s musical appreciation. And the two local kids who tagged along with us are no slouches either, when it comes to enjoying good music.

The sold out audience did contain a fair number of young people, brought along by their elders, but for the most part it consisted of boomers enjoying the chance to relive some of the choicer moments of their youth.

To see them enthusiastically waving candles to the chorus of “Let It Be,” or dancing in the aisles to “Twist and Shout” was as heartwarming as watching our group of seven- to 12-year-olds experience the Fab Four for the first time.

For those of us who actually remember the Sixties, the show brings back a feast of memories — of times that were, as Dylan told us, “a changing.” For later generations it is more of a “magical mystery tour” that simulates the experience of being at a series of actual Beatles concerts, beginning with their 1964 debut on the Ed Sullivan Show and ending five years later.

Time and change are marked by the transformation in outfits, beginning with the narrow lapelled Teddy Boy black suits of their opening appearance, through casual denims to the gorgeously ornate uniforms of Sergeant Pepper’s band, to the guru-inspired white outfits, long hair and granny glasses of their new age period.

Meanwhile, the walls and backdrop of the stage are used for a continuous media montage. Sappy commercials for pickles and headache remedies are replaced with shots of excited studio audiences, replete with bouffant hairdos and screaming teens. These, in turn, are followed by black and white coverage of the outside world — Civil Rights marches, anti-war demonstrations, hippie love-ins and funerals for assassinated martyrs — making the sixties come alive again, filled with energy, excitement, naïveté and foolishness. Colored smoke, flashing lights, and psychedelic designs bring things to an intense pitch as the quartet sing “I get by with the help of my friends…”

What makes the show such a delight, however, is the actual music itself. My son’s comment was “I can’t believe how closely these guys replicated the sound” (and the look, and the costumes…).

Alan LeBoeuf (Paul), David Leon (John), John Brosnan (George) and Carmine Grippo (Ringo) are highly trained and talented performers in their own right. In re-creating the Beatles of the Sixties, they are accomplishing a double feat, being both actors and musicians. The show runs over two hours, and entails 30 songs, many with that strong, distinctive beat the boys brought to America (“Please, Please Me,” “All My Lovin’,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand”) as well as some of the most powerful ballads (“Hey Jude,” “Let It Be,” “In My Life,” “Penny Lane”), and above all, the greatest of the Lennon-McCartney collaborations, “Yesterday.” Even The Yellow Submarine was there, complete with film clips from the cartoon.

The audience was bursting to sing along and they were encouraged to do so in most of the numbers. The interaction between performers and fans was almost as intense as in the old days, with sedate middle aged suburbanites screaming out their love.

You had to be there. You ought to be there. If you can still get tickets to this mostly sold-out show, it makes for a very special entertainment, whether you go alone or take some deserving young persons who need to know where you came from.

(Four performances remain, this weekend only, February 25-27. Call 203-576-1636 or visit DTCab.com for details or reservations.)