By Jeanni Ritchie
Despite the fact that my birthday cakes now hold as many candles as they do frosting, I knew surprisingly little about the Beatles when the immersive tribute band BritBeat performed for a full house in Alexandria last month.
I’d even interviewed founder Chris Getsla a few weeks before their arrival and got a feel for the production, but had relegated the superstars to a one-dimensional characterization in my mind. I pictured the clean-cut, mop top quartet of the early ’60s singing about and living a very G-rated life throughout their career.
I had obviously failed Beatlemania 101.
Thanks to the incredible narration woven into the production, coupled with the hair and costume changes of several distinct eras, I had a masterclass in all things Beatles during BritBeat’s three-hour show.
The evolution of their music, the psychedelic impact, the Eastern influences…they all led to an ever-evolving sound that was far removed from the clean-cut quartet I had boxed them into.
And BritBeat didn’t simply tell us about that evolution. They transformed right along with it.
Getsla, portraying Paul McCartney, was joined onstage by the rest of the familiar foursome as their matching suits and mop tops gradually gave way to longer hair, facial hair, brighter colors and the unmistakable fashion of the Beatles’ later years.
The music changed with them.
Songs I’d known for decades suddenly had context. Others were completely new to me.
One of those was Taxman.
The song itself caught my attention, but the synchronized video playing behind the band made it impossible to look away. Fast-moving, quirky and a little bizarre, the original BritBeat video perfectly complemented the song and was one of the visual moments that stuck with me long after the show ended.
Before the show, Getsla had told me that thousands of hours had gone into creating the multimedia elements used throughout the production. Sitting in the audience and watching those elements unfold in real time gave me a much better appreciation for what that meant.
The screen was never simply a backdrop.
Historical footage, photographs, graphics and original video worked alongside the live music and narration to move the audience through the Beatles’ story. At times it felt less like watching a tribute band and more like stepping into a musical documentary.
And the packed Coughlin-Saunders Performing Arts Center was along for the ride.
There were longtime Beatles fans who undoubtedly knew every word and every piece of history being shared. Then there were people like me, familiar with the biggest songs but discovering how much more there was to the story.
By the end of the evening, both groups were on their feet.
One of my favorite parts of the night was experiencing it alongside my friend Tawney, who had been a teenager living on the island of St. Thomas during the Beatles’ heyday. While I was discovering pieces of the story for the first time, she was watching music from her youth come alive again onstage.
“It reminded my soul of a carefree and exciting time in my personal life. Even island girls danced in the moonlight to the Beatles,” Tawney shared.
That may be the greatest strength of BritBeat.
You don’t have to have experienced Beatlemania firsthand—or even passed Beatlemania 101—to appreciate the show.
For three hours, four musicians, changing costumes, historical storytelling and an enormous multimedia production brought one of music’s most famous stories to life on an Alexandria stage.
I went in knowing the Beatles.
Or at least I thought I did.
I left knowing them a whole lot better.
