Casting Announced for West End-Bound Backbeat, Charting the Rise of the Beatles

Casting is complete for Backbeat, a stage adaptation of the 1994 film about the formation of the Beatles which will play the West End's Duke of York Theatre this fall. The cast will feature Nick Blood as Stuart Sutcliffe, Andrew Knott as John Lennon, Ruta Gedmintas as Astrid Kirchherr, Daniel Healy as Paul McCartney, William Payne as George Harrison and Oliver Bennett as Pete Best. Performances begin on September 24, with opening night set for October 10. David Leveaux directs.

Set in the early 1960s, Backbeat follows John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison and original Beatles members Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe on their journey as young rockers in Liverpool and Hamburg. Sutcliffe's romance with German artist Astrid Kircherr soon gets in the way of the band's music. At only 22, the bassist died the same year the Beatles hired Brian Epstein as their manager and released their first single, "Love Me Do."

Backbeat had its world premiere at Glasgow's Citizens Theatre in 2010. Directed by Ian Softley, the 1994 Backbeat movie starred Stephen Dorff as Sutcliffe, Sheryl Lee as Kircherr, Ian Hart as John Lennon, Gary Bakewell as Paul McCartney and Sean O'Neill as George Harrison.