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Let It Be, the musical: 'The biggest Beatles tribute on the planet'

The cast of new musical Let It Be have been waiting to play the Beatles for most of their lives, but how will they replicate the sound of the world's best-loved band?

By Jennifer O'Mahony

14 Sep 2012

“We’ve been Beatles for a long time,” John Lennon tells me at the bar in the Prince of Wales theatre. “Ever since I was a small boy I’ve been studying for this job.”

John, short and tanned, with dark hair and a hint of eyeliner, does not look much like Lennon, because he isn't. The John Lennon reclining in a chair is Michael Gagliano, breaking from a rehearsal for new Beatles musical Let It Be.

From tonight, Gagliano must become a living Lennon for two and a half hours as part of the cast of the musical, which follows the Beatles’ music from ‘Love Me Do’ in 1962 to their breakup in 1970.

Those involved in Let It Be aren’t attempting to rewrite the story of the Beatles, and have opted instead for a hyper-precise tribute, all songs and and no dialogue, that they hope will emulate the look and sound of their heroes well enough for the audience to believe they are watching the Liverpool lads with the sixties in full swing.

It is a gamble. Almost none of the cast look like their corresponding Beatles, and they range from a Ringo fresh out of music college to Pauls pushing 40. There are two men per Beatle, eight in all.

The cast of Let It Be perform on the the roof of the Trafalgar Hotel Photo: Annabel Moeller



A Hard Day's Night performed by the cast of Let It Be

Emanuele Angeletti, a former Italian X-Factor contestant who plays an amiable Paul McCartney, came to John and Paul separately while growing up near Rome.

“I liked Paul McCartney so much, Ebony and Ivory with Stevie Wonder, which I listened to every day, and Beautiful Boy by John Lennon, and one day my father told me: ‘There is a band where Paul and John sing things together, they’re called The Beatles’. I didn’t know!” Angeletti formed a band, then joined a Beatles band, and has never stopped trying to be the perfect McCartney. “I’ve played Beatles for fifteen years in Italy in a tribute band, a lot of gigs and TV programmes,” he says. After auditioning with his band in London for Let It Be, he was the only one chosen for a part.

Angeletti’s spoken English is heavily accented, but his singing voice is unbelievably close to the subtle but distinctive quality of McCartney’s vocals.

His fellow Paul, James Fox, had an equally unlikely journey to the London stage, singing for soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq armed with just an acoustic guitar and a catalogue of Beatles hits in his head.

“I’ve entertained the troops for ten years,” he says, “I just stand there with an acoustic guitar, and you’d be amazed that guys at the age of the 18, even though when they were born the Beatles had long disbanded, there’s not one night that you don’t get a request thrown at you for Helter Skelter. The Beatles never fail to get a mention.”

Each member of the cast has a moment they recall as irrevocably converting them to the way and light of the Beatles. For Stephen Hill, a George Harrison with the hair and boyish features that make him the sole cast member who might be mistaken for his guitarist twin, it was Help!

He says: “Hearing Help! is like being punched in the face with music, for me. In a good way. Help! What’s that? Within five seconds you know what that song is.

“It’s got to be right, what we’re aiming for is for people to say ‘I’ve just seen the Beatles,’ as extreme as that may sound.”

The Beatles performing at the Royal Variety Show in 1963, in the same theatre as Let It Be is staged

It seems fitting that the refurbished Cavern club in Liverpool was the audition venue that produced this refurbished George Harrison. “The whole reason I play guitar is because I have family in Liverpool. I visited them aged eight and discovered the Beatles," he says.

“Everybody starts out wanting to be in a band, then you get into the Beatles and you find out there’s a whole scene of Beatles bands. It’s just a case of playing lead guitar anyway so the natural choice was George, and luckily he’s my favourite Beatle anyway.”

Back at the bar with not one, but two John Lennons, Reuven Gershon explains why he wanted to be a Beatle rather than play his own songs, or those of any other rock band, for that matter. “I love the Beatles music, but luckily I’m able to impersonate one of the Beatles. I’m not black and I can’t play guitar like Jimi Hendrix, so I can’t do that, though I would if I could. One of the things I love the most is that I can play and sing like John Lennon and I’m just happy to be able to do that.”

Michael Gagliano sees Let It Be as the pinnacle of what is possible for a Beatles obsessive. “The Beatles bands are like any other industry. There’s different levels of competence and of abilities. You start off and it’s like a ladder, the better you get the better band you join and the better the people are you play with.” After all, he says, “This is the biggest Beatles job on the planet.”

Previews of Let It Be start September 14 at Cameron Mackintosh’s Prince of Wales Theatre, with the opening night on 24 September. For ticket information see Telegraph Box Office