Live performance
Saturday January 22, 2022 at 7.30pm
John Waters and Stewart D’Arrietta with The Liverpool Band – The John Lennon Songbook
Celebrating The 50th Anniversary of the IMAGINE Album
Booking link: https://www.trybooking.com/BSXGR
John Waters is known to many as an outstanding Australian TV and film actor, and a generation grew up with him as a host of Play School. His John Lennon show “Looking through a Glass Onion” was a hit in London and New York. In these strange times, he is touring regional Australia, and it is great that we can now host such a concert at our very own James Theatre Dungog.
Tickets are on sale now. We expect that tickets will sell quickly at the price of $65 Adult, $35 under 18 years of age. Be assured that if COVID restrictions prevent the performance going ahead, you will receive a full refund.
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of IMAGINE, the whole album will be performed live by John Waters and this band – a band that has toured the world performing the songs of John Lennon to great acclaim.
‘Lennon’s spirit shines through’- New York Post
‘D’Arrietta is a powerful pianist with strong beats for a Honky Tonk’- Curtain Up, New York
‘John Waters encapsulates the essence of Lennon.’– CAPITAL RADIO, LONDON
The great response to our recent performances of the new ‘Songbook’ concept has led to the idea of a tour, marking the anniversary of this iconic album with an entire rendition of it, track by track. Plus rocking on with some favourites from Lennon and the Beatles’ amazing catalogue.
Waters and D’Arrietta are enjoying the on-stage freedom that comes from doing a concert of songs where they can perform ‘as themselves’.
John Waters says:
“The ‘Glass Onion’ show is a different and rather unique category of ‘theatrical style’. It’s always exciting to do. But this ‘Songbook’ is a band gig, and a more intimate style of bringing these great songs to people. We do it in our own way, and it gives us a personal contact with our audience, which is such a happy vibe.
It feels like we’re all getting together again. For over a year the whole world has had to stop hanging out and socialising, and now that we have the chance, we need something like this. I know I do.
Exploring some of the lesser-known John Lennon tracks on his solo career albums is always a revelation, and I’m loving the process of learning more than you thought you could, with every new move. I’d like to continue doing that, so I can’t think of a more appropriate way than celebrating IMAGINE, and all the things that the famous one-word title conjures up for everyone.”
Drama/Musical
Saturday January 29 at 3pm
West Side Story (M)
Booking link: https://www.trybooking.com/BWVKH
Directed by Steven Spielberg, from a screenplay by Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Kushner, West Side Story tells the classic tale of fierce rivalries and young love in 1957 New York City. This reimagining of the beloved musical stars Ansel Elgort (Tony); Rachel Zegler (María); Ariana DeBose (Anita); David Alvarez (Bernardo); and Rita Moreno.
Bringing together the best of both Broadway and Hollywood, the film’s creative team includes Kushner; choreographer Justin Peck and renowned Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor Gustavo Dudamel, who helmed the recording of the iconic score. West Side Story has been adapted for the screen from the original 1957 Broadway show, with book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and concept, direction and choreography by Jerome Robbins.
