By CAROLINE STRAINIG
IN 1992, John Waters and Stewart D’Arrietta took to the small stage at the Tilbury Hotel in Sydney with their debut production of ‘Looking Through A Glass Onion’, a homage to the music, mystery and memory of John Lennon.
What was an initially a one-week booking quickly sold out and extended into a six-week, sell-out season.
Fast forward and after a massive 137-date tour in 2010/2011/2012, John and Stewart are returning with their up-close-and-personal two-man show in 2014 while gearing up toward launching the production in New York.
“It began its life as a small venue piece with just Stewart D’Arrietta and myself on stage at the Tilbury Hotel in Sydney,” John said.
“I made my entrance from a kitchen and climbed over patron’s laps to scramble onto a tiny raised platform in the corner of the room. The audience and I were inescapably intimate with each other from the very start, and I kinda like that.
“Not every venue we play this time around can be exactly like that, but it’s the feeling I want to create – to take the show back to its roots.”
The national tour of ‘Looking Through A Glass Onion’ commenced in November 2010 at the Sydney Opera House, with a sell-out, two-week season. The production quickly extended throughout 2011 and 2012, taking in more than 65,000 ticket sales nationally to be one of the highest-selling Australian Artist tours in recent years.
“It’s been fantastic the response the show is receiving, especially from the younger audiences that are coming along, some of whom were not even born when Lennon and The Beatles were recording and releasing their music,” John said.
“It’s a testament to the legacy of the man and his music that still excites and intrigues people to this day.
“It never ceases to amaze us how many people still request to see the show, even after our last lengthy tour. We’re constantly getting emails and messages asking when is the show coming back, so it’s great that the demand and interest is always there.”
The show is not a cut-and-paste biography of Lennon or an emulation of the original recordings. On stage, with shadows from the lighting arrangement fluttering over his face as he explores the essence of the man through song and spoken word, Waters, becomes synonymous with Lennon. He shies away from imitating the artist, but so emotive is his performance, it lulls the audience into believing anything is possible. It’s part concert and part biography, although it doesn’t seek to tell the full story of Lennon’s life.
“Rather than to impersonate, I wanted to evoke his honesty, bitter-sweet humour, self-criticism and disdain for pretentiousness and pomposity,” Waters said.
For the audience, this is either an emotional trip down memory lane or a wonderful introduction to the life and times of one of the most fascinating icons of our time.
With 31 songs performed including to name a few – ‘A Day in the Life’, ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, ‘Revolution’, ‘Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds’, ‘Woman’, ‘Jealous Guy’, ‘Imagine’ and more – this is a show for all ages.
The two will perform in Port Macquarie at the Glasshouse on Saturday 4 January. For more information visit www.glasshouse.org.au.
