Following the dissolution of The Beatles, John Lennon embarked on a soul-searching journey with his wife, Yoko Ono; seven years his senior, she posed as a mother figure of sorts. Amid the pair’s peace protests and spiralling addiction issues, Lennon began to question his troubled childhood, something he had ignored while playing with The Beatles.
After studying Arthur Janov’s “primal scream” therapy, Lennon famously ruminated on his maternal abandonment in the popular 1970 single ‘Mother’. Alongside Ono, he continued to follow Janov’s therapy to find the answers to a broken youth. Unfortunately, through the early to mid-1970s, Lennon’s mental state was tested by his struggle with addiction, fame and self-reflection.
In 1973, Lennon entered what would become known as his ‘Lost Weekend’: 18 months marked by a romantic affair with May Pang, a production coordinator who worked on his and Ono’s music. After a significant spell of marital issues, Ono and Lennon separated, and Lennon embarked on a short-lived relationship with Pang. Lennon would later return to Ono and lament this dark and decadent period.
At the tail end of this 18-month period, Lennon tried his hand on Broadway by backing the musical show Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road. Technically, the production was off-Broadway and was helmed by the unconventional theatre and film director Tom O’Horgan.
The show opened at the Beacon Theatre in New York on November 17th, 1974, and ran for a total of 66 performances. While the other members of The Beatles may have been none the wiser, Lennon green-lit the production, attending several rehearsals to oversee O’Horgan’s adaptation.
Lennon reportedly attended the opening night with his mistress, Pang. It is unclear how enthusiastic the Beatle was about the final product, but according to several sources, it was an ill-conceived flop.
Unlike its 1967 parent album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road alienated fans with its incoherent plot and intangible ludicrosity. Taking characters and motifs from The Beatles’ psychedelic era, the play followed a Candide-inspired rock star named Billy Shears, who marries a woman called Strawberry Fields. Sadly, Strawberry Fields dies, and Billy sells his soul to dodgy characters, including Maxwell’s Silver Hammermen, Jack, Sledge and Claw.
The play initially starred Ted Neeley as Billy Shears and Alaina Reed as his temptress, Lucy (in the Sky). Despite its underwhelming reception, Michael Schultz and Henry Edwards later loosely adapted the off-Broadway production into the 1978 musical comedy movie Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
The movie was also a commercial and critical flop, despite starring the likes of Peter Frampton, The Bee Gees, Steve Martin, Donald Pleasence and Aerosmith. Discussing The Bee Gees and Frampton’s involvement in the movie in a 1979 interview with Rolling Stone, George Harrison said: “I think it’s damaged their images, their careers, and they didn’t need to do that. It’s just like the Beatles trying to do the Rolling Stones. The Rolling Stones can do it better.”
