Lemmon

Joan Marcus

Will the Real John Please Stand Up: Will Chase, Chad Kimball (rear), Julie Danao.

Details

Through May 14

Music and lyrics by John Lennon

Tickets are $35-85

512-7770

www.lennonthemusical.com

Orpheum Theatre, 1192 Market (at Eighth Street), S.F.

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More About

• John Lennon
• Don Scardino
• Yoko Ono
• Musicals
• Celebrity News

Inasmuch as the musical presents Lennon as a working-class boy made good, a peace warrior, and a revolutionary icon, Scardino's "search for the real John Lennon" doesn't do much more than reiterate what we already know about the subject from the countless books, films, and plays out there already. Yet the very act of canonizing Lennon on Broadway, of all places, undermines everything the production claims the artist stood for. When asked (in an interview Webcast on www.lennonthemusical.com) for her opinion on how the deceased would have reacted to the idea of a Broadway musical based on his life, Ono replied, "He would have said, 'Hooray.' He would have loved the fact that we are going to be on Broadway." Gimme some truth, Yoko. If Lennon is anti-establishment incarnate, then what is the man who wrote "Imagine" and "Woman Is the Nigger of the World" doing on the ultimate bastion of all things establishment, the Broadway stage?