"Let It Be" to play the St.James — Page 2

The Beatlemania business is an interesting one- we studied it briefly in theatre history class.

The original Broadway show "Beatlemania" is the template for the Beatlemania industry- a mixed concert, multimedia show and dramatic reenactment of the Beatles "characters" and their rise and fall. The show was vaguely licensed, but not soundly enough to escape prosecution, and a legal precedent was set that only the Broadway cast and crew of "Beatlemania" could officially be Beatles tribute bands for so long.

What this led to was a splintering as nearly everyone involved in the original "Beatlemania" capitalized on their legal precedent to launch their own splinter production with the "Beatlemania" name. Hence, Beatlemania Live and The Cast of Beatlemania both claim to be descended directly from the original Broadway production, but have cycled through dozens of casts by now.

And the continuation of Broadway becoming an area for theme park musicals continues.