Come Together
The Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool

OPENED in 1826, Liverpool’s Royal Court Theatre was forced to close in 1996, due to the dilapidated state of the building. The new theatre opened its doors in 2000, intent on being a writer’s theatre with plays and performances that challenge the artistic, social and political orthodoxy of the day, together with community-focused activities. 

Many productions focus on new writing, in particular with a Liverpool theme, using a largely Liverpool cast and crew. 

It’s obvious that at some point drama and music about Liverpool’s Fab Four would be included. The show Come Together explores the Lennon and McCartney partnership from their first meeting as teenagers to the break-up of the Beatles 13 years later – everything from the Quarrymen all the way through to Abbey Road. 

This journey through the Lennon and McCartney songbook starts with early hits that were unashamedly aimed at the growing number of female fans. Rock and Roll based hits like Love Me Do had all of us head nodding, hand clapping, toe tapping. 

Lennon and McCartney wrote all their songs under their joint names until the Beatles broke up. Soon however, Lennon, who recognised the subversive potential of rock music, began to develop a different perspective from McCartney. This is demonstrated on stage when he thrashes out the chords of Revolution while McCartney sits quietly at the piano performing Let It Be. 

Inspired by the political protests in 1968, Lennon’s song, Revolution, expressed empathy with the need for social change, but not the use of violent tactics to achieve this. 

Lennon in particular was the one often branded by the media as restless, cynical, arrogant. He actively endorsed a wide variety of progressive and radical political causes including demonstrating against America’s involvement in Vietnam. Like many people on Merseyside, I never went along with the belief that the Fab Four “changed the world,” but I recognise they became one of the most important songwriting partnerships in pop music history. 

This show, Come Together, was written by actor, singer, musician, Tom Connor, who plays Paul McCartney alongside Mark Newnham, who is totally convincing as John Lennon. They are part of a tremendously talented, six-piece band whose rendition of Beatles music is both stunning and full of enthusiasm. 

However, Come Together is not simply a performance of Beatles songs. It explores difference in personality, how deeply they were affected by the sudden death of Brian Epstein which led to the founding of Apple, an “anti-business thing” whose basic principal was to take business out of song writing. 

We then saw a re-enactment of the famous open-air concert performed by Lennon and McCartney on the Apple building roof top in London. At the end of the show, we were invited to join in when they performed Hey Jude. Lennon came to the front of the stage and tells us: ”Those of you in the cheaper seats clap your hands and the rest of you rattle your jewellery”!

It’s worth seeing Come Together as an evening of stunning musical performances. But it’s more than that. We see Lennon and McCartney as two very different personalities whose way of dealing with the world eventually led to a breakdown in their relationship. 

They both, of course, continued to make music, which McCartney still continues to do. In 2018, in his album Egypt Station, McCartney recorded his anti-Trump song, Despite Repeated Warnings, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCIhWoQZBJc, which, in the spirit of most of his songs, was a gentle beating rather than a Thump Trump. 

Apple never was “Topic Records,” but Come Together is well worth going to. An evening for both celebration and enjoyment.

Runs until April 6. Box Office: 0151 709 4321, liverpoolsroyalcourt.com