Watford Palace theatre
Stage version of TV movie offers impressive impersonations of the Beatles stars but is more like fan fiction than drama
What went down during the penultimate face-to-face meeting between John Lennon, then a stay-at-home dad in granny specs and dressing gown, and Paul McCartney, back at No 1 with Wings, in New York in April 1976? And how close did they really come to reuniting musically that evening in Lennon’s apartment?
Mark Stanfield pared back this real-life scenario in 2000 for the TV movie Two of Us. (Most accounts have Linda McCartney and Yoko Ono also in attendance.) For the new stage version, Stanfield, Richard Short, and Barry Sloane (who also plays Lennon) have streamlined it even further, removing an incognito walkabout sequence on the advice of director Scot Williams. The action now stays within Lennon’s apartment, with its white piano and its view of the Manhattan skyline. Only once do the duo venture outside. “Remember the last time we were on a rooftop together?” sighs McCartney.
At Watford Palace theatre until 21 September
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