The Beatles and their music predominate in a recall of history, especially from the mid-1960s on, but the musical revue Yesterday also highlights them in relation to The Who, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, and even Chuck Berry. It’s a nostalgic look at their times of peak popularity, backed by scripted and projected historical notes. Though the quartet of singers-musicians don’t look like the ones they’re representing, the men basically try to capture their predecessors’ essence. Yesterday becomes a tribute more than an imitation, though it sometimes borders on emulation. That’s particularly true when projections on each side of the stage present actual performances (such as “The Yellow Submarine” on screen in animation) along with those of the Yesterday four. Ben Mackel starts the script narrative but mainly is a lead singer, especially on ballads, and guitarist. A very fancy electric guitar embellishes the singing and narrative bits by Eric Scott Anthony, whose “captain’s hat” reflects times when he leads. Young blond Hunter Brown, the percussionist, sometimes joins the guitarists, too. Keyboard master is John Bronston, who also excels at singing and dramatizing African-American-influenced music and lyrics. He’s strong interacting with ladies at the tables surrounding the proscenium of the small cabaret stage. The starter “I Love You Yah Yah Yah” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” in the manner of the Fabulous Four, benefits from photos of their first American appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show because, in truth, the FST four are rather much younger than the Beatles at the referenced time. Unusually, there’s a complimentary presentation of The Kinks. All the way to the end of the ‘60s and including the Stones’s and Woodstock favorites, music, script, and movement are well coordinated via Catherine Randazzo’s perceptive direction and very effective changing of background lights in colors and patterns. It’s the “set” colors and lighting—ending in an illuminated British flag—that distinguish Yesterday from previous typical Cabaret shows. Costumes are equally inventive. Their theme may well be the freedom expressed in the lyrics or even through the donning of sunglasses. If there is any downside, it’s too many references to Viet Nam—almost devoid of relevance to the revue’s music. More really relevant American music would have made a better conclusion to the “Yesterday” so well known by typical local audiences.
