Review: Backbeat At London’s Duke of York Theatre
Written by Sarah Magee 27 / 11 / 2011
Andrew Knott is an actor who I have grown up watching. From his first screen appearance as Dickon in the Secret Garden, then staring as Joe in Black Beauty and going on to appear in numerous soaps and dramas, including Coronation Street, Where the Heart Is and Spooks makes him a noted actor of my generation. He is one of those actors that when discussed people can’t visualise who you are on about but when you look into it he is everywhere. Gavin and Stacey, the History Boys… recent credits include Black Mirror ‘The National Anthem’ which was last month. His acting credits don’t just lie on screen; currently he is playing John Lennon in Backbeat, the story of the birth of The Beatles.
It would seem Andrew Knott is a multi-talented actor playing guitar and singing whilst delivering a perfect Liverpudlian accent… almost too good! At the start the dialogue sometimes got lost in translation… and ultimately went over the audiences’ heads. Before I go on I feel I should admit something. I didn’t know much about the history of the Beatles prior to seeing Backbeat. I (rather naively) thought they were a bit of a goody two shoes band. Oh how wrong was I? Backbeat depicts the rise of the Beatles and you get to see them at there most raucous. From living behind a cinema screen in Hamburg and sampling the local delights, to playing eight hour sets in a grotty German clubs whilst taking Speed to keep them awake; Backbeat depicts The Beatles at their rock ‘n’ rollprime. You also got acquainted with the fifth Beatle. Stuart Sutcliffe played by Nick Blood who is portrayed as a rather troubled (but deeply cool) artist who falls hopelessly in love with Astrid Kirchherr.
Within the first half there were times when the action could have been punchier and a few of the characterisations by ensemble members were rather one dimensional and based on stereotypes, i.e. ‘the gay German’ and ‘the German beer maid’ which seemed to conflict with the deep story which was being played out between Sutcliffe and Kirchherr. However, in the second half all was forgiven when the story came to climax and I was left crying after the death of Sutcliffe. My emotions were yo-yoed in the second half and soon after my tears dried I was upbeat and dancing in the aisles to classic Beatles songs played live by ‘The Beatles’… I can imagine if you are a woman of a certain age this would be your heaven. This reflected in what I heard in the interval from an older audience member saying, “You know what is wrong with this audience? They are too young!” I think she was expecting Beatles mania. That is why I would recommend it! Definitely not to everyone’s taste but a great educational tool to fill in the gaps of young peoples popular cultural knowledge. I felt bad I didn’t know a great deal about Stuart Sutcliffe before stepping into the auditorium. My stand out performances for the evening would (of course) be from Andrew Knott, who plays John Lennon with a cheeky charisma and Daniel Healy who is a very talented musician who got Paul McCartney’s classic head wobble down to a tee, I would go again just to see the scene where McCartney and Lennon write their hit “Love Me Do”.
