Not bad. Not great, but not bad.

Written and directed by Don Scardino (A Few Good Men)
Produced by Allan McKeown, Edgar Lansbury, and Jeff Sine

---CAST:
Will Chase (Aida)
Chuck Cooper (Caroline, or Change)
Julie Danao Salkin (Saturday Night Fever)
Mandy Gonzalez (Aida, Dance of the Vampires)
Marcy Harriell (Lucky Duck, Ed)
Chad Kimball (Into the Woods)
Terrence Mann (Les Miserables)
Julia Murney (The Wild Party)
Michael Potts (Twelfth Night)

This was my first Broadway show. I had wanted to expand my horizons for some time by going to some of these shows, since it seemed a shame to let living so close to New York City go to waste. I had missed Patrick Stewart's two stints in his one-man Christmas Carol, and Sarah Silverman's show Jesus is Magic was in lower Manhattan, so I guess that's off-Broadway, and besides, that was standup comedy. But yesterday, my supervisor told me we would be doing exit polling at a Broadway show called Lennon. (That's where we give the questionnaires to the people before the show starts, and collect them on their way out.)

When I showed up at the Broadhurst Theater at W44th ST., I was told that after we taped the questionnaires to the seats, I and another coworker would actually be seated in the audience and watch the show. Awesome.

I'm not sure I was the target audience for this.

The show, which presents John Lennon's life as a timeline from birth to death in the form of brief skits based on his own words from interviews and song, and which are punctuated by performances of his songs, had some aspects to it that I found a bit off-putting. I mean, I got used to the idea of Paul McCartney being played by a black guy, but I didn't get the notion of having nine different people (men and women) playing Lennon and the Beatles. When the four women got up on stage as the Beatles, I missed it; I though they were portraying musical bands at the time of the Beatles' formation as a sort of backdrop. Only when I looked at the Beatles logo on the drums did I understand that they were supposed to be the Beatles.

Mind you, the show was fairly informative to someone like me who only had a casual knowledge of Lennon, and I was interested by aspects of his life that I was previously unaware of it, but perhaps I'm so spoiled by movies and novels that the unusual format of this show was difficult.

Mind you, I loved the rendition of Beautiful Boy during the scene where Lennon's second son Sean is born (a song I first came to appreciate with the film Mr. Holland's Opus, and the final song, Imagine, was also powerful.

Seeing Yoko Ono pass right by me during intermission was cool, as it was the second time that's happened (the first having been a couple of years ago at a movie screening at Lincoln Square). It is interesting to note that Ono not only gave her blessing for the production, but also gave permission for the production to use two unpublished Lennon songs, India, India and I Don't Want to Lose You.

It's hard for me to write what I feel is a proper review, because this was a brand new medium for me, so I’m not sure where my feelings about the medium end and my feelings about this particular show begin. It was okay, I guess, but I wasn’t terribly impressed by the ideas behind the presentation. It’s possible that just as with a movie that may be well-made, but not my cup of tea, so too, perhaps am I just not on the same wavelength with this show. But have a feeling Broadway lovers will love it, given the copious applause after each musical number, and Lennon fans will flock to it.

You can find out more about the production here. It premieres August 14.

I am a Lennon fan, and love the theater, but this just sounds odd. I wonder why they have so many actors playing the same characters? There was a play/musical of Lennon's life done in England, and I saw some of it on TV, and it looked pretty good, and more traditional.

Looking through a number of the questionnaires from today's matinee performance showed that many others in the audience didn't like the bit with the four actresses playing the Beatles. I mean, it just didn't make sense to me. A coworker suggested that they were trying to embody Lennon's idea that "we are all one," and perhaps anyone could play anyone, but if that was the intent, it just didn't come across well.