It’s been 53 years since they started and 42 since they broke up, but Beatlemania doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. Least of all in Copenhagen, where later this month Forum will be playing host to the country’s largest-ever theatre concert, Hey Jude, featuring reworked and reimagined music from the legendary Liverpudlian rock band.
The show is following in the footsteps of the critically-acclaimed 2009 Come Together production at Gasværket, where such Beatles anthems as ‘Yesterday’, ‘Revolution’, ‘All You Need is Love’ and ‘Eleanor Ribgy’ were for the first time ever readapted to fit the theatrical musings of Nikolaj Cederholm and the company at Gasværket.
Like something straight out of the fab four’s psychedelic Sgt Pepper phase, Come Together was a theatre concert (a term Cederholm grounded in the 1990s when he himself was onstage performing Dr Dante at Aveny in Frederiksberg) without plot or dialogue, with avant-garde costumes and well-known rock tunes transformed into wonderfully weird symphonies unlike anything heard before. The production had the critics singing their six-star praises, and this December,
Come Together twin-duo creators Peter and Jens Helleman are once again teaming up with director Nikolaj Cederholm to bring the music of The Beatles to the stage, this time as Denmark’s largest ever theatre concert event at Forum, with a whopping 4,200 seats per performance.
“We invite the audience to a party with colour, good music and stomach-flipping special effects,” says Cederholm of the new show. “We can promise that it will be a surprising and dynamic show with constantly shifting voices and pictures.”
Hey Jude will include 30 reinvented Beatles classics, including ‘Let it Be’, ‘She Loves You’, ‘Blackbird’, ‘Lady Madonna’ and of course, ‘Hey Jude’. But don’t necessarily expect to recognise each song – at least not right away – as much of the music has been reinterpreted and remade thanks to influences ranging from opera to classical to punk. Yoko definitively would approve.
“The show is for everyone: Beatles fans, theatre concert fans (and those who have never heard of the concept), 12-year-old children and their 90-year-old grandparents,” Cederholm continues. “Hey Jude embraces the whole family and is a great family outing for anyone who loves music and life in general – regardless of age.”
Onstage will be The Storm lead singer and X Factor judge Pernille Rosendahl, who will be making her concert theatre debut alongside Cecilie Stenspil and actor Troels Lyby, both currently performing in the musical Next to Normal at Nørrebro Teater. And to all those who loved Come Together, both Jimmy Jørgensen and Mark Linn will be returning to once again tackle The Beatles collection onstage, this time promising an even more psychedelic and no holds barred performance.
Considering Jørgensen was hanging by his ankles while floating above the audience singing ‘Across the Universe’ at Gasværket, we can’t even begin to imagine what madness lies in store at Forum!
Hey Jude Theatre Concert
Forum, Julius Thomsens Plads 1, Frederiksberg; starts 28 Dec, ends 15 Jan, performance times vary; Tickets 365-575kr; www.billetlugen.dk, 7026 3267
