As a kid, I was a huge Beatles fan. So, in summer 1977, my mom loaded me and my brother onto the D train and took us to see "Beatlemania" -- billed as "Not the Beatles but an incredible simulation" -- on stage at Broadway's legendary Winter Garden Theater. Don't worry, I won't run the photo she took afterward!
Thanks to more than 3,500 lighting and projection cues, "Beatlemania" recreated every phase of the career of the Fab Four, complete with accurate costumes and musical instruments. And, caught up in the moment of the show -- which was performed on Broadway 1,009 times from 1977 to '79 before heading out on an international tour -- and sitting a ways back, these guys looked and sounded amazingly like John, Paul, George and Ringo.
"Beatlemania Now," a similar show with a similar, but different, set list, and different performers, comes to the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, Oct. 16 at 8 p.m. and this time, I'm taking my mom and my son.
While I saw the show from the front of house, Milwaukee's Reed Kailing got a completely different perspective.
On his Web site, his experience with the "Beatlemania" is summed up in a single sentence:
"In 1977, I went off to New York to perform the role of Paul McCartney in Broadway's production of 'Beatlemania' at the Winter Garden Theater."
Get him talking in person about the show, in which he performed for more than a year, and he'll quickly scan his encyclopedic memory and talk and talk and talk about it.
Kailing started out in Milwaukee as a member of The Destinations before heading to Chicago to create music for "The Hardy Boys" and later to L.A. to join the Grass Roots and form Player (you remember "Baby Come Back").
When tickets went on sale for the Milwaukee performance of "Beatlemania Now," Kailing was among the first in line to buy tickets (OK, maybe not literally).
"I'm on the aisle, right across from an exit," Kailing jokes. "I might just want to leave for one down at the bar."
Kailing's memories of his "Beatlemania" experience seem bittersweet.
"There's a lot of good stuff," he says, recounting anecdotes involving everyone to Yul Brenner and Judy Garland to Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, but you get the sense, too, that the politics of relations between the different "bunks" or casts of the show -- some of which worked concurrently -- left a mark, too.
That same spirit may mark Kailing's mood this Friday night, too.
"I was talking to Billy Cicerelli, who mastered the CD," Kailing says, "and he said it could be sad for you. And I thought, 'Yeah.' In the sense that when you're used to the best of the best ... and they were the best on Broadway."
There are nine scenes and eight costume changes in the show, which features the band playing live on stage in front of a backdrop of images that put the music into its social and historical context.
"Beatlemania Now" opens -- like "Beatlemania" did -- with a scene called "Camelot." It sets the stage -- JFK, "Leave it to Beaver" and some early Beatles covers, like "Roll Over Beethoven," "Hound Dog" and "Bye Bye Love."
In scene two, "The mania begins," and by the end of Act I, the revolutionary "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" has hit.
Act II begins with "Flying" and "Magical Mystery Tour" and captures the second half of the '60s, wrapping up at the dawn of a new decade, as the Beatles call it quits and "Let it Be."
Because he believed the quality of "Beatlemania" faded as the skills of the successive bunks waxed and waned, Kailing approaches "Beatlemania Now" with a little skepticism. But I asked him if he's prepared for this cast to come out and kick some butt.
"I'd love it," he says, without missing a beat. "I'd love to see the lefty bass guy. I tried it and it lasted for about two shows and I finally said, 'screw it it's not worth it.' Mitch (Weissman, the Bunk 1 Paul McCartney) tried it and it lasted one show. What you do by trying to accomplish that you're giving up something else.
"I wish the best for these guys, I really do, it's a tough gig."
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
