McCartney Times

The story behind Beatlemania fascinates Andy Nagle.

“I’ve been in music for a while and have never seen anything like the love for The Beatles,” Nagle says. “They are the most popular tribute in the world – more popular than Elvis, The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin.”

He is the cowriter/producer behind “In My Life,” a musical retelling of The Beatles’ story through the eyes of manager Brian Epstein. The Long Beach, California-based show features the live music of renowned tribute band Abbey Road, featuring Chris Paul Overall (Paul), Nathaniel Bott (John), Zak Schaffer (George) and Axel Clarke (Ringo). Murphy Martin plays Epstein. The production includes multimedia, period costumes and vintage instruments.

“I always wondered about what it’s like to witness Beatlemania from The Beatles’ perspective,” says Nagle, who wrote it with longtime friend Tom Maher. “I wanted to look inside of the whole tidal wave that went on for nine or 10 years. We researched it and I read every book from sources who were there – everybody from studio engineers to the Beatles themselves.

“When we saw events described two to three times by different sources, we would go with that.”

Nagle hired Martin to play Epstein and to narrate the show. He meets The Beatles at the Cavern Club at the beginning of the show, while the musicians were still donning black leather jacks and smoking on stage.

“Brian went into the Cavern Club and was impressed with them,” Nagle says. “He told them he wanted to be their manager. He was only 26 years old and didn’t have experience in the business. But he understood they had a real ability to connect with the audience.

“He also cleaned them up – wearing the matching suits and adding the synchronized bows at the end of songs.”

The phenomenon was “crunched” into a two-hour script, he says.

“The show has 33 songs in it,” he says. “So as the story goes, people not only get to hear The Beatles’ music, people get an understanding why the songs came and went on that particular point of their career.”

Source: British Invasion: ‘In My Life’ takes you behind the scenes of The Beatles’ rise to fame