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LENNON: THROUGH A GLASS ONION Send This Review to a Friend
British-born John R. Waters, who has built a career in Australia and who summons the life and art of John Lennon in the show that he does with Stewart D’Arrietta at the piano and sometimes pitching in with the singing, gives a warm tribute to the late revered Beatle. Whether or not you enjoy the voice of Waters is another matter.
Waters makes no pretense of trying to imitate Lennon in “Lennon: Through a Glass Onion.” But after the show I listened again to a few examples of Lennon’s singing. As the world knows, he had a rather melodic, appealing voice, but the raw singing of Waters mostly sounded more as if he were channeling Bob Dylan in a tone so very different than Lennon’s.
Still, it is good to hear the array of songs chosen as a refresher to help keep Lennon’s memory alive. Where Waters excels is in the biographical comments interspersed with the music and delivered in the first person as if he were Lennon. The show begins with the sound of shots fired, and near the end we again hear the gunfire. In between, Waters provides assorted anecdotes, some of them humorous, including what it was like being a Beatle.
He talks of his relationship with Yoko Ono, about the drug scene, and his family background. There is a light, reflective tone to most of it, but not when he talks about the stranger he sees linger outside his apartment building. Lennon finds it odd but doesn’t recognize the danger.
Among the 31 songs performed by Waters are “All You Need Is Love,” “Come Together, “Imagine,” “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” and “Strawberry Fields Forever.” The show was conceived by Waters and D’Arrietta in 1992 and first performed on a small stage in Sydney, Australia. Since then they have been touring with it.
At the Union Square Theatre, 100 East 17th Street. Phone: 1-800-982-2787. Reviewed October 16, 2014.
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