Review – Backbeat, Duke of York’s Theatre

Is it a play or is a musical? Perhaps it’s a bird or a plane? This could make the Whingers’ annual game of Charades very tricky.

Especially since Iain Softley and Stephen Jeffreys’ Backbeat is based on the 1994 film (which Softley also co-wrote) about The Beatles and joins the tsunami of film-to-stage adaptations flooding the West End at the moment.

With a new book and film (3 hours 28 minutes!) about George Harrison just out and a Beatles’ wedding in the week of its official opening it is somewhat timely.

But what is it?