Let it Be is a true celebration

Let It Be, the touring West End show described as a “celebration of the music” of the Fab Four, does just that and, if Monday’s opening night at York Grand Opera House is anything to go by, it would certainly be a marvellous sight.

The show does what it says on the tin - four fine performers essentially chronicling the band’s remarkable career from their formative days at The Cavern Club, on to the Royal Variety Club and the US with so many of their hits.

However, there is much more to it than that especially given the attention to detail it provides.

For instance, Emanuelle Angeletti’s Paul McCartney plays guitar both left and right-handed during the performance, just like the Beatles star, while the group’s witty banter shines through, too.

It is that interpretation of how Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band might have played out on stage - they quit touring the year before its 1967 release - that is the dazzling show’s zenith, though.

Paul Canning as John Lennon, Angeletti’s McCartney, John Brosnan as George Harrison and Luke Roberts as a mischievous Ringo Starr, all suitably attired in the garb from that famous album sleeve, bring the sound to the stunning backdrops depicting those psychedelic days.

The album’s titular song and Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds are particular crowd-pleasers there but the acoustic section that follows, where Paul starts off seated on his own for Blackbird, and the rest follow one by one to finish with Ringo’s Yellow Submarine is brilliantly staged, too.

In it, Canning, as Lennon, strums a beautiful In My Life while dedicating the show to the man behind so much of the Beatles success - their late producer George Martin.

Let It Be and Hey Jude have everyone on their feet during the encore and rightly so; they sounded epic proving again the show is far greater than a glorified tribute band and proving, once more, a fitting nod to the lads from Liverpool that became such a behemoth.

Performed until Saturday.