Across the Universe

Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess, Joe Anderson,
Directed by: Julie Taymor
Review: Dave Burbidge
Release date: 28th Jan 2008

Young artist and dockworker Jude (Sturgess) is living the sixties youth rebellion dream in Liverpool. He moves to New York (Greenwich Village naturally) and falls in love with Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood) another free spirit, who will become his muse and introduce him to the wider social and political issues of the times.

Many years ago a friend of mine in an amateur musical society in Walthamstow decided to create a storyline loosely based around well know musical numbers, thus there was a character called Dolly (so they could perform Hello Dolly), and the plot tried to weave its way around well known show tunes. Fast forward a couple of decades and you get the same treatment meted out to Beatles songs. Lucy is obviously from Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and the cast get to ham it up to a range of fab four classics including 'I am the Walrus' and another couple of dozen tracks.