New York, NY —
From Evita to Buddy Holly to Jackie Onassis, the lives of famous people have inspired works for the stage. Now, almost 25 years after his murder, John Lennon’s story is coming to Broadway. The new musical, “Lennon,” is scheduled to open later this month. WNYC’s Elena Park reports.
REPORTER: When John Lennon fans hear that his life is now the subject of a $7 million musical, some might be dismayed. So it might come as a surprise to learn that Lennon was planning to put his story on Broadway. His widow, Yoko Ono.
YOKO ONO: John and I, in 1978 and ’79, thought: “Why don’t we do something to make in a musical?” And we did think about that and we had a name for it and everything.
YOKO ONO: …so that’s what he wanted to do.
REPORTER: They planned to call their musical “The Ballad of John and Yoko.”
JESSE McKINLEY: In terms of dramatic story matter: Wow!
REPORTER: Jesse McKinley writes about theater for the New York Times.
McKINLEY: Here’s a guy born in relatively poor circumstances in Liverpool who rises to a position of kind of unparalleled international fame and, more than that-more than just being a rock star-becomes kind of a symbolic touchstone for an entire generation of people.
REPORTER: The creative team behind “Lennon” grew up with the Beatles. Allan McKeown, the lead producer, was a hairdresser who met the Beatles in the 60s. He was personally affected by their rise to fame.
ALLAN McKEOWN: I can remember when I went to Vidal Sasssoon’s, I spoke with a very strong Cockney accent because I come from the East End of London. And we were all told at the shop not to speak unless spoken to. About a month after I’d been there it became the thing to talk with a Cockney accent and all those that spoke kind of, you know, nicely were told to shut up and the rest of us were told to speak up.
REPORTER: The show’s writer and director, Don Scardino, was part of the crush of teens at JFK airport when the Beatles first arrived in the U.S. in 1964. He loved that Lennon was constantly searching for his “authentic self.”
SCARDINO: He was the acid guru, and the Mahareshi acolyte, and the primal scream guy, and the Beatle, and the bloated Beatle, and the house-husband and father, and the revolutionary; he was all these people.
REPORTER: Dramatizing the life of any icon is difficult, so Scardino knows there will be skeptics. He faced an additional challenge because Lennon was such an Everyman.
ONO: John was a very cosmopolitan person, international person, and his spirit was really black, red, yellow, white. He was not just a white hero and he was always tuned into all different races in the world.
SCARDINO: I kept thinking about him saying, you know, “I am he as you are he and you are me and we are altogether. We’re all one, we are all one.” And I thought, well, why can’t an entire company play John Lennon?
REPORTER: This approach —for an entire multi-ethnic cast to portray Lennon — convinced Ono to grant rare approval for the project. Nine men and women perform songs like “Instant Karma,” from this rehearsal recording.
The cast also speaks words from his writings and interviews, including Lennon’s comments to student protestors in 1969, urging non-violence.
“LENNON”: Violence begets violence. I don’t believe in anything else and I don’t believe there’s a park worth getting shot for. Avoid a confrontation with the blue meanies. You’d be better to move to another city, or to Canada.
REPORTER: The new musical took a beating during its trial run in San Francisco last March. Critics were confused by the multiple Lennons and wanted more narrative structure. The show has since undergone a massive rewrite.
But it still features an intimate song he wrote for his mother, Julia, who left him when he was a child.
They reconciled when he was a teenager, but she was killed by a drunk driver soon after. Yoko Ono.
ONO: I think it’s very difficult to sing about your own mother—John was courageous in doing that—but at the same time there’s a little holding back, you know? And these guys: they’re not holding back.
REPORTER: Using 25 Lennon songs and only three Beatles tunes, the musical also features two previously unreleased songs: “India, India,” about a pilgrimage to see the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and “I Don’t Want to Lose You,” inspired by the couple’s temporary split in the mid-70s.
Jesse McKinley, of the New York Times, says it might be difficult to overcome the negative buzz, but the show might have a home turf advantage.
McKINLEY: John Lennon, particularly in New York City, particularly where he was shot and killed, particularly where he made his home, is an iconic figure like no other. I think you would be hard-pressed to find someone else whose image and impact is so directly linked with New York City, which is funny since he’s a Brit, but John Lennon really was a New Yorker.
REPORTER: At Strawberry Fields, the memorial near Lennon’s home at the Dakota on Central Park West, fans like James Denny will continue to remember Lennon despite what happens on Broadway.
JAMES: John Lennon was a peacemaker-he wanted to be a peacemaker-he was. It’s all he stood for, you know? You know: no war; war is over if you want it. That’s his legacy. It’s lasting, it’s just it’s really a shame that there’s not enough people around that think like him and her. John and Yoko.
REPORTER: If the producers behind “Lennon” are successful, more people will be seeing the world through John & Yoko’s eyes. But no matter what, there is always his music.
For WNYC, I’m Elena Park.
LENNON: “Thank you.”
This story was co-produced by James Murdock. The musical Lennon is now in previews at the Broadhurst Theater. It’s scheduled to open on August 14th