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Daniel Taylor as John Lennon Lennon Through a Glass 0nion
Coventry Belgrade Theatre
**** COVENTRY was the final stop on quite a
tour that started in New York, then went round most of Britain and
Ireland. Described as part-concert and part-biography, Daniel Taylor (Lennon on Guitar) and Stewart D’Arrietta (What a pianist!) treat us to a post-Beatles Lennon fest of songs – 31 in 90 minutes! Daniel Taylor is physically very similar to
Lennon and it was both thrilling and unnerving by turns to watch the
stance, hear his diction and see how he delivered the songs in such a
similar way to Lennon. The songs are a revelation; Lennon always thought
he had to write about love, and the opening song about glass onions was
breaking the mould.
Quite a few songs I’d
never heard before but would love to hear again. I have to admit to
being a George fan myself but this monologue in song made me look again
at John Lennon and, in particular, think about how he started and where
he finished, an unwanted child given to an aunt, always in trouble for
‘showing off’ at school and finally meeting his mother Julia at age 13
to discover that she had been living a stones-throw away all his life
and nobody told him – then she was killed in a traffic accident in front
of his eyes. A beautiful song,
Julia, records this episode elegantly
and honestly. He talked about meeting Paul, more musical than
himself – he knew about diminished chords, and the Beatles seeming like
the property of the public. Attitudes to Yoko Ono were far from our
finest hour and, though she was blamed widely for the Beatles break-up,
John himself admits that he wasn’t mature enough to cope with
commitment. His rendition of
Help was
stunning and my favourite part of the show. I’ve just seen Eight Days a
Week about the Beatles on tour in America in 1963 and John talked there
about it being autobiographical but used in the film up-tempo. This was
slow but assured and every word was a stab in the heart. I would like to ask why it had to be both so loud
and so dark. It felt like a bombardment on a Friday night after a
fraught week at work. Other than that, this is a beautiful show, written
by John Waters, and a real experience that shouldn’t be missed. Jane Howard 21-10-16
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