UP AGAINST IT
Unfortunately, the Beatles played it safe and turned the script down. Soon after, Orton was murdered. The film was never produced, and Lennon and McCartney told all those calling for a revolution that you could count them out. Maybe Orton should have offered it to the Stones.
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And Lookingglass Theatre turns it into one hell of a show. Directed at a breakneck pace by Bruce Norris, the Lookkingglass ensemble plunges recklessly into the script, charging breathlessly from one hilarious picaresque adventure to another. Driven by a hard-rocking score of original 60s-style numbers by members of the ensemble, the show comes off as the great rock opera Pete Townshend and Ray Davies were too pretentious to write. The songs range from giddy psychedelia to surf guitar romp to college shout, and even when they falter (a striptease number with cheesy lyrics that recalls Sheena Easton’s rendition of Prince’s “Sugar Walls” and a closing number that sounds out of place–more like Liz Phair than the Beatles) they maintain the show’s exhilarating rhythm.
