Studio Two ~ 2019 December 31 ~ Chatham Elementary School, Chatham First Night ~ Chatham, MA
Stephen Murray as John Lennon, Al Francis as Paul McCartney, Robert Murray as George Harrison, and Richard Rampino as Ringo Starr
Set List
First Set
She Loves You - I Saw Her Standing There - Talkin' 'bout You {Chuck Berry} - Little Child - From Me To You - Some Other Guy - Don't Bother Me - Do You Want To Know a Secret? - All My Loving - Like Dreamers Do - Too Much Monkey Business {Chuck Berry} - Till There Was You {from 'The Music Man' by Meredith Willson} - A Hard Day's Night - I Call Your Name - Can't Buy Me Love - Honey Don't {Carl Perkins} - Help! - Leave My Kitten Alone {Little Willie John, James McDougal, Titus Turner - performed by Little Willie John}
Second Set
Twist And Shout {Phil Medley and Bert Russell - performed by The Isley Brothers} - You Can't Do That - The Night Before - I'm Happy Just to Dance with You - Love Me Do - All I've Got to Do - Please Please Me - I'll Cry Instead - Things We Said Today - Act Naturally {Johnny Russell and Voni Morrison - performed by Buck Owens and the Buckaroos} - I Feel Fine - Paperback Writer - Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby {Carl Perkins} - Sweet Little Sixteen {Chuck Berry} - Little Queenie {Chuck Berry} - I Want To Hold Your Hand
Videos
Scroll down past the videos for review.
From Me To You/Some Other Guy
A Hard Day's Night, I Call Your Name
Honey Don't
Review
These four musicians call themselves Studio Two, after the famous Abbey Road studio where The Beatles recorded many of their tracks. They perform songs exclusively from the early (pre-Sgt. Pepper) Beatles. This focus distinguishes them from some of the other Beatles tributes out there. They are very different, for instance, from the stage play A Day In the Life, which covers the entire Beatles career, with costume changes and performances of songs The Beatles themselves never did live. It can be argued that Studio Two, because of their early, narrow focus, are a more authentic Beatles experience; a lot like actually going to see the band around 1965.
The show consists of astoundingly good performance of many famous, and a few lesser known, Beatles tracks. But it is also part theater as well. The four performers have all studied the mannerisms of The Beatles, so familiar from the TV and live performance clips of the day, and all four of them were spot on in imitating their characters. When speaking they all had Liverpool accents, and their stage mannerisms, ranging from John's bouncing up and down, to Ringo's cross-sticked drumming, to Paul's cheeky ad libs, to the sharing of the microphone between two singers, were all really authentic. I thought Paul was especially good at the accent, and that he looked like his Beatle to an uncanny degree.
When Ringo sang, he sounded just like the real thing; when George took a solo, he too sounded just like the real thing. These musicians have made sure they are playing the instruments the early Beatles were seen playing on those old TV clips. Their clothing and their hair were just perfect. John and George shone on their respective lead vocals, as well; and it's a good thing the real John had sandy colored hair, because without the differing hair colors, the audience would have had to rely on which guitar these two twin brothers were playing to tell them apart.
The band played two 45 minute sets, and even though the show times were an early 1 pm and 2 pm, the auditorium at the Chatham Elementary School was mostly full for both shows. Before the first show I was chatting with a three-generation family sitting right behind me, and it turned out the grandmother had seen The Beatles way-back-when. She said she literally couldn't hear any of the music for the screaming! I hope today's show made up for missing the music on that magical day so long ago.
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