Backbeat headed for West End stage...

Daily Express :: 5 December 2003

Backbeat, the acclaimed 1993 film about the early years of The Beatles in Hamburg, is to become a West End play starring the original cast. It included American actor Stephen Dorff as 'the fifth Beatle' bass player Stuart Sutcliffe,who died of a brain haemorrhage shortly after he left the band in 1961,and Liverpool born Ian Hart as John Lennon. They recently re-united for a read through of the new production, along with Gary Bakewell, Chris O'Neill and Scott Williams who respectively played Paul McCartney, George Harrison and the band's then drummer Pete Best.

The movie also featured Twin Peaks actress Sheryl Lee as Stuart's fiancee, German photographer Astrid Kirchherr and Jennifer Ehle as Lennon's then girlfriend and future wife, Cynthia Powell. All the original players are, however, now well into their 30's and will have to play The Beatles in their leather-clad very early 20's when they left Liverpool to hone their raw music skills at a residency in a club in the red-light district of Hamburg.

The film's writer and director, Iain Softley will co-produce the play with the Out of the Blue company. According to The Stage, the theatre world newspaper, it is still in a 'development stage' with no venue fixed.

Negotiations are on-going to use the rock 'n' roll and blues standard numbers that The Beatles played at that early stage of their careers in 1960 and 1961. No original Beatles number will feature. A spokesman says: "None of the songs in the feature film or the future stage show is an original Beatles number but producers are in negotiation to secure the rights to the standards used.