Looking Through a Glass Onion

Overview

This is the third time that John Waters has toured Looking Through a Glass Onion — his biographical combination of music and words about the life of superstar ex-Beatle, John Lennon. Waters plays Lennon in a plain suit on a bare stage, band around him. To look only at the costumes, this is Letterman or Conan O'Brian: suits, a band, a bald band leader. But the visuals are only scaffolding.

Waters wears Lennon easily, catching his rhythms and attitude. His builds a Lennon who is likeable, human and irreverent. Lennon's songs are juxtaposed with Lennon's life, which is sometimes abrupt, but more often adds extra juice to the music. The first half rushes through Lennon's early years and his time with the Beatles. The second half has it easier, with only ten years to span. Lennon's relationship with Yoko Ono stands out during the second act, and is handled especially well. Yoko got a lot of blame for the break-up of the Beatles — mostly for the crime of being Asian or a woman. Waters paints her as a whole person — neither strife, nor phenomenon. All through Looking Through a Glass Onion, Waters' script delivers people from superstardom down to person. He strips the fame from Lennon and returns a likeable man in midst of a whirlwind.

The real Lennon had little of the slow gravitas often adopted in the glare of public life. He just seemed to be himself. As a listener, you know — you just know — Lennon's songs mean something to you. Looking Through a Glass Onion gives you some idea of what they meant to the man who wrote them, as well. By end of the show, John Waters owns the meaning of John Lennon, if only a version of it. Lennon as a whole person, and taking up a person's space. No more, no less.

Looking Through a Glass Onion runs Tuesday to Sunday, until December 12.