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What: Looking Through a Glass Onion
When: Saturday, February 15 at 8pm
Where: Wendouree Centre for Performing Arts
Tickets: $55
Bookings: wcpa.com.au
LOOKING Through a Glass Onion is "nothing like anything" John Waters has ever done before.
"I've never done a show where one person does all the singing and talking," Waters said.
"In my life I've done straight plays, musical theatre and television shows, but Glass Onion is a separate entity."
The production first came to be in 1992 when Waters and Stewart D'Arrietta took to the small stage at the Tilbury Hotel in Woolloomooloo, Sydney.
What was initially a one-week booking quickly sold out and extended into a six-week sellout season. Now, both Waters and D'Arrietta are returning with their two-man off-Broadway production in New York.
A homage to the music, mystery and memory of John Lennon, Glass Onion is not a cut-and-paste biography of Lennon or an emulation of the original recordings.
Waters said describing the show was more difficult than performing it.
"It's a collection of songs written by John Lennon during The Beatles' time and during his solo career, interspersed with monologue and delivered as if it were the words of John Lennon in answer to John Lennon," he said.
Featuring 31 songs including A Day in the Life, Strawberry Fields Forever, Revolution, Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds, Woman, Jealous Guy, and Imagine, Glass Onion is a show for all ages.
"Of all the musical people I could've chosen, I can't think of anyone interesting enough," Waters said.
"I love Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan, but I don't think any of them has as dynamic a story to tell.
"Lennon was the leader of The Beatles. It was his band and I can't imagine anyone would come remotely close as a potential candidate for a show of this type."
For the audience, Glass Onion 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.
"I think it connects to people on a deeply personal level. How it does that is slightly a mystery," Waters said.
"I don't really tell the story, it just emerges from the material and that's why it sneaks up on people."