Beatlemania Now! Brings Fab Four Magic to Pennington’s in Jewett, Ohio

by Dave Parsons

It seems every area of the country has a tribute band covering the songs of the biggest bands in music history.  Most cover the songs, and some get into costuming where appropriate, but few tribute acts go as far as Beatlemania Now!

Beatlemania was a Broadway musical revue, a “rockumentary” that focused on the music of the Beatles. The play was advertised as an incredible simulation of the era of the Beatles and ran over 1,000 performances.  With no script to tell the story, the show was 25+ of the Beatles songs telling their story. The Broadway show ran over 1000 performances and grossed more than 40 million dollars.

Today, the excitement of all of those days can be felt in the Beatlemania Now! Tour which runs a replica spinoff of the same show as the Broadway predecessor.  The ‘Fab Four’ that pulled into Pennington’s in Jewett, Ohio consisted of Paul Bryck (John), Chris McBurney (Ringo), Chris Colon (George), and Bob Halligan, Jr. (Paul).  Each member is a successful musician or songwriter of their own accord, bringing that Beatles magic alive on the stage. The band explained pre-show that they were raised up on The Beatles music so to get to carry on and extend the legacy is a pure delight.

There is a bit of a difference between a Broadway stage and the stage of a restaurant/pub, but technology being what it is, the sports on the TV was switched to a wide-screen viewer.  As the lights dimmed, a tape of Ed Sullivan introducing the Beatles to the world on his show in 1964 ran on the show, and the show began with the Fab Four running between the tables to their place on the stage. The stage was set like it was that night in the Sullivan theater, the boys had the suits and ties in place, and from the first notes of “When I Saw Her Standing There”, the show was off and running.

The band took the audience on a jigorous ride through the catalog from that era including “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”, “Hard Days Night“, and “Act Naturally”, before ending this portion with “She Loves You”.  A video montage of era-friendly clips played while the guys slipped into custom-made costumes from the “Sgt. Pepper” LP cover, and started through a set from that era including the title cut and “With A Little Help from My Friends.”

The third costume change was a “little more to interpretation”, Colon explained pre-show.  In reality, the Beatles were already broken up by this point, and it was simulated what they would have looked like doing songs like “Something”, “Get Back”, and “Hey Jude”.

All totaled the crowd at Pennington’s was treated to 28 of the Beatles’ biggest hits, authentic staging costumes, and multimedia interaction make for a show that demonstrates why the Beatles catalog is one of the most enduring in music history.

Beatlemania Now! Setlist:

1          I Saw Her Standing There

2          I Wanna Hold Your Hand

3          From Me To You

4          Please Please Me

5          All My Loving

6          Roll Over Beethoven

7          This Boy

8          Hard Days Night

9          8 Days A Week

10        Can’t Buy Me Love

11        Act Naturally

12        Help!

13        I Feel Fine

14        Nowhere Man

15        Day Tripper

16        She Loves You

17        Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart’s Club Band

18       A Little Help From My Friends

19       I Am The Walrus

20       A Day In The Life

21       Got To Get You Into My Life

22        Revolution

23        Something

24        Don’t Let Me Down

25        While My Guitar Gently Weeps

26      Get Back

27        Hey Jude

28        Twist And Shout