Lennon: Through a Glass Onion Review

In the decades since John Lennon’s death, writers, performers, and fans have struggled to untangle the legacy of the most enigmatic Beatle. The latest entry in that canon is Lennon: Through a Glass Onion, a spare two-man production playing at Off Broadway’s Union Square Theater. The stars, John R. Waters and Stewart D’Arrietta, freshly interpret Lennon as a tragic figure, but don’t stray too far from his original aesthetic. Thanks to this skillful treatment, Lennon soars in a way most Beatles reimaginations, like the 2006 Cirque du Soleil show Love or the 2007 film Across the Universe, do not. Through a Glass Onion doesn’t bog itself down with attempts to mimic Lennon’s psychedelic grandiosity. In fact, that’s the show’s most striking dimension. There are no sets, and Anthony Barrett’s excellent light design is modest. Waters and D’Arrietta, who premiered the show 22 years ago in Sydney, Australia, want crowds to focus on them alone. They’ve got the gravity to make that work. The show explores Lennon’s life through 31 of his songs, re-sequencing them and mixing in first-person monologues to stitch together a surprisingly poignant narrative. As D’Arrietta plunks away at a piano and adds vocal harmonies, the 65-year-old Waters strums a guitar and belts out classics ranging from ”You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” to ”Working Class Hero.”