Shake It Up Baby! - A Northern Theatre News Review

Before the performance on the rooftop of Apple Corp, before Shea Stadium, before The Ed Sullivan Show, even before the haircuts, even before Ringo Starr, there was Allan Williams and a band of scrappy teenagers from Liverpool. A band of teenagers who, by all accounts, weren’t even that good to begin with – but to whom Williams took a shine, as he held their hands through backing vocal production, stints in Hamburg, and the subtle art of being so young and so full of potential.

This review isn’t a biography of The Beatles’ early days, but it feels an important reminder to contextualise what’s on stage right now at the Epstein Theatre; that once there was The Quarrymen. After some time, there was The Beatles. And between those two checkpoints in the band’s history, there was Allan Williams. From Liverpool playwright Ian Salmon and director Stephen Fletcher comes a new look at those years for The Beatles; years of travel, turbulence, love, loss and, most importantly, music. Shake It Up Baby!’s tagline says it best; these are ‘the years that made The Beatles.’ Wrapped up as a neat jukebox musical, a cast of actor-musicians are tasked to come together and throw their hats in the ring of media about The Beatles, to make something memorable. Do they pull it off? Well, from me to you, they absolutely do.

Leading the cast is Liverpool-favourite Andrew Schofield as Williams. Never far behind him are ‘the boys’ themselves; Michael Hawkins as John Lennon, Guy Freeman as Paul McCartney, James Jackson as George Harrison, Kieran Andrew as Stuart Sutcliffe and Nick Sheedy as Pete Best. Any Beatles fanatics reading will have just let out a sigh of relief to find both Sutcliffe and best in the lineup – more on that in a moment. The cast is rounded out by Andrew Copperthwaite, Grace Galloway, Connor Simkins and Jess Smith, all spinning various plates in various roles. And that’s a theme; Barring the core Beatles themselves and Schofield as Williams, most of the cast spend the show slipping in and out of various hats to become different characters in the story. Andrew, who we come to know as Stu, eventually returns to the stage as Epstein. Once Best’s time with the band wraps up, Sheedy becomes Ringo just as quickly. It’s effective, and it contributes to Shake It Up Baby! Being as pacey and frenetic as it is.

Over those Hamburg years, The Beatles were here, there and everywhere. To allow for a plot that refuses to stay put in one spot, the staging here is stripped right back. The bare walls of the stage and even the back dock are visible – the only physical setting is made up of a raised platform, a couple of tables and chairs, and instruments and microphones. It gives the space a chameleon-like impact, and also sets your mind back to the sorts of venues The Beatles would have been playing at the time; just non-descript corners of anywhere-clubs. It’s transporting. So, too, is the conceit. There are, and will continue to be, thousands of versions of The Beatles’ story. What sets this apart is Salmon’s choice to have Williams act as narrator and character at once; he is there with ‘the boys’ in his club, but he’s also out for a drink with us, the audience – he’s telling us the story over a glass of wine. Narratively, it keeps the momentum of the story running at pace and, emotionally, it serves as a reminder of how many people were truly behind The Beatles’ rise to superstardom. Williams, in a figurative and literal sense, gets his moment in the spotlight. And Schofield’s Williams is an undoubtable crowd-pleaser – the show is full of moments for him to knowingly smile at the audience, and his performance incites genuine emotion on both ends of the scale. And there’s a startling honesty at play, happening to and around Williams. Salmon’s choice to devote narrative time to the stories of Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best is commendable, in a creative space that often leaves them on the cutting room floor. But going beyond mentioning them, and making them fully realised – letting the audience get to know them? That’s something special.

Well – you can’t review a musical about The Beatles without reviewing the quality of The Beatles themselves. Across the three (yes, three) different configurations of the band we see in Shake It Up Baby!, Hawkins, Freeman, Jackson, Andrew and Sheedy put in an extreme amount of work to bring the world’s most beloved musicians back to the stage. There are shades of light and dark to this story, and each actor rises to the occasion, making each of our beloved Beatles feel fleshed-out and three-dimensional. Though the story has been told so many times, I’ll still do my best to not spoil anything – suffice to say, in moments where we see this group of kids facing themes of fear and grief and grappling with how they could possibly get back to what they once were, the performances on stage are tear-jerking. And when they pick up their instruments – both diegetic, when songs come up in the narrative, and non-diegetic, as underscoring to the action – they make bringing rock ‘n’ roll back to Liverpool look easy. This isn’t your mates doing Hey Jude at karaoke; this is the proper, bonafide Beatles.

And what a soundtrack they have to play with! In an era when The Beatles were covering the hits of the day (McCartney-Lennon originals wouldn’t come until years later), Shake It Up Baby! is full of iconic songs from the era that you might’ve forgotten you love. My personal highlight was watching ‘the boys’ bring the house down with Johnny B. Goode – for a minute there, I genuinely forgot I wasn’t at a concert. The question on your mind might now be how you could possibly do a musical about The Beatles without any of their historic music. Well, just trust that Salmon and the team wouldn’t let it be that way, and be physically and emotionally prepared to twist and shout your way through the curtain call… that’s all I’ll say!

I watched Shake It Up Baby! yesterday, and it fast became one of the best jukebox musicals I have seen in my life. The cast is practically overflowing with talent, the music and design are genuinely transporting, and the plot is a rollercoaster ride through one of the most important moments in music history. So, book your ticket to ride – Shake It Up Baby! is at the Epstein Theatre until Sat 11 October 2025.

Review by Aaron Cawood

Editor’s note, there are 8 titles of songs from The Beatles hidden (or, not so hidden) in this review - did you spot them all?

Cast

• Andrew Schofield — Allan Williams

• Michael Hawkins — John Lennon

• Guy Freeman — Paul McCartney

• James Jackson — George Harrison

• Kieran Andrew — Stuart Sutcliffe / Brian Epstein

• Nick Sheedy — Pete Best / Ringo Starr

• Andrew Copperthwaite — Lord Woodbine & other roles

• Grace Galloway — Rosi, Astrid & other roles

• Connor Simkins — George Martin, Bruno Koschmider, Klaus Voorman, Howie Casey, etc.

• Jess Smith — Beryl, Bettina, Ringo’s mother, etc

Creative & Production Team

• Writer / Book: Ian Salmon

• Director: Stephen Fletcher

• Arranger & Musical Director: George Francis

• Sound Design: Kate Harvey

• Lighting Design: Ciaran Cunningham

• Set & Costume Design: Alfie Heywood

• Associate Designer: Christopher McCourt

• Musical Associate: James Breckon

• Dance Consultant: Carrie-Anne Ingrouille

• Lead Producer: Scott Millaney