24 June 2014 (gig)
26 June 2014
Opening at The Arts Centre in Melbourne, “Looking Through a Glass Onion” celebrates the life of John Lennon. Lennon was a powerhouse and will forever be remembered for his incredible music and desire to change the world.
John Waters and Stewart D’Arrietta developed and first performed “Looking Through a Glass Onion” in 1992 and its continued success has lead to many tours, including a season in London’s West End.
Accompanying Waters on stage was the talented Stewart D’Arrietta who began playing piano at the tender age of 7. “Looking Through a Glass Onion” is part bio and part concert. Act one included an array of The Beatles hits including, ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’, ‘All You Need is Love’ and ‘Revolution’. Interwoven between the songs, Waters, who portrays John Lennon spoke of the revolution and John’s desire to leave The Beatles.
In the second act, the performance concentrated on Lennon’s years with Yoko Ono. Waters spoke of the British Anglo-Saxon racism directed at Yoko and horrible things that were printed in the papers about her. It’s unbelievable that many harboured such distain towards Yoko simply for being Asian and many blamed her for John’s departure from the Beatles.
Waters performance of Woman was moving and reminded me of one of Yoko’s many awe-inspiring quotes about her late husband. “ In our minds, we were a team – old soldiers.” John and Yoko stood up for humanity and fought like soldiers against hypocrisy. ‘Jealous Guy’, ‘Watching the Wheels’ and ‘Help’ were performed beautifully, yet ‘Imagine’ stole the show and garnered Waters and D’Arrietta a standing ovation.
Waters was brilliant and remained in character to the very end. An enjoyable evening and well worth seeing for all John Lennon and Beatles fans.
