Beatlemania (musical)

Beatlemania
Broadway Playbill cover
Music	The Beatles
Lyrics	The Beatles
Book	Bob Gill, Robert Rabinowitz, Lynda Obst
Basis	The life and music of The Beatles.
Productions	1977 Broadway

Beatlemania was a Broadway musical revue focused on the music of The Beatles as it related to the events and changing attitudes of the tumultuous 1960s. A "rockumentary," advertised as "Not the Beatles, but an incredible simulation," it ran from 1977 to 1979 for a total of 1,006 performances.

Beatlemania took the form of a roughly chronological history of The Beatles via their music. About 50 songs were performed during the show. Other than some onstage banter, there was very little dialogue during the production, which consisted mostly of exact re-enactments of the Beatles' music. The multimedia production was notable for its extensive use of backdrops, slides, newspaper headlines, and video footage to evoke the 1960s and iconic Beatle moments.

Beatles tribute bands predated Beatlemania — notably Rain (which debuted in 1975) — but Beatlemania was the first production to create a full multimedia theatrical experience.

Originally conceived and produced by Steve Leber and David Krebs,Beatlemania debuted in Boston at the Colonial Theatre in April 1977. It premiered on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre on May 31, 1977 (after previewing since May 26 — although no critics were invited), with cast members Joe Pecorino ("John"), Mitch Weissman ("Paul"), Les Fradkin ("George"), and Justin McNeill ("Ringo").

Quickly achieving sellout status without ever having an official "opening night", Beatlemania saw great success and coverage in Time, People, Us, Newsweek, and Rolling Stone. For the first six months, every ticket for the show was sold out.