Let It Be at the Regent Theatre Stoke-on-Trent Review
Let It Be
Regent Theatre,
Stoke-on-Trent
31 March to 5 April 2014
Reviewed by Victoria Moore
The Regent Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent was easy to find with plenty of local parking. Clean, tidy and tastefully decorated with plenty of seated leg room. The ambience was inviting with welcome music in theme with the show, at a gentle yet appropriate level to allow guests to be seated and get comfy.
From humble beginnings this rock and rollercoaster ride starts in the ingeniously projected cavern club, and the hits start to flow. The show is non-stop hit after hit punctuated with character and humour from the well cast lads. This tribute to the Beatles takes you on a journey through their career told by their music.
As the show progresses so does the confidence in one of the trickiest regional accents and the characters really start to shine, with Stephen Hill taking the lead through the first era and Emanuele Angeletti providing note perfect accompaniment before really shining later in the show. Luke Roberts beats were spot on as the journey continues and as the show enters the colourfully wonderful ‘Sgt Peppers’ era Michael Gagliano’s character portrayal was in his element.
The costume department has outdone it’s self with pizazz and era specific theming and the mixed generation crowd was behind every song; dancing, clapping and singing along.
Legendary songs that everyone recognises such as Drive My Car, Yesterday, Ticket to Ride, I Want to Hold Your Hand, Hard Day’s Night and my favourite – All You Need is Love to name but a few are seamlessly joined, part way through I realised I knew the words to far more than I would have thought.
The show is segmented into stages each hosting a different concert throughout their career, including plenty of opportunity for crowd participation which helped maintain the atmosphere. The only time you would realise that you’re not in the sixties is when during classic’s like the name sake Let it be, crowds took to the digital age as they swayed with light via a mobile phone screen replacing the traditional cigarette lighters.
The videography was creatively done in tune with each era and mimicking the on stage action near seamlessly, the facial expressions by the cast was uncanny in similarity to their real life counterparts. Emanuele Angeletti was spot on. Only when you have seen this show do you realise how varied the Beatles truly were.
Having heard tales from when my mum saw the ‘Fab Four’ live as a teenager I’ll be looking to get her tickets as the tour travels closer to home so she can hear some 40 of their well loved tracks played without a backdrop of screaming and feinting fans.
In answer to Sgt Peppers question, yes indeed we did ‘enjoy the show’.
Rating: 5/5 
Tickets cost from £16.90 to £42.40 (plus £2.85 transaction fee).
For more information or to book tickets click here or call the box office on 0844 871 7649.
Regent Theatre, Piccadilly, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, ST1 1AP | 0844 871 7649
