A musical event decades in the making is coming to Stettler as part of the Stettler Variety Showcase's upcoming performance.
Becoming the Beatles, an audio-visual experience hosted by Hayley Marie, will be coming to Stettler on March 16.
Marie, who studied music history and trained as a pop and classical pianist, put the travelling roadshow together to answer the question of how the Beatles got so big.
"They released game-changing music," said Marie.
Like all Variety Showcases performances, there will be two shows offered, one at 1:30 and one at 7 p.m.
Each show will last around two hours, with a small intermission, featuring around 400 images depicting the Beatles' history, 20 Beatles' songs and a spoken portion of the iconic group's history.
Marie says that this 'unplugged' version of the show is tailor-made for smaller venues as it only has a touring team of three.
The team has been running the show in different parts of Canada since 2018, and Marie says it still "Hasn't gotten old."
"People are taken on a behind-the-scenes ride that's larger than life, and (can see) what humans are capable of," said Marie.
"We've worked really hard to polish the show."
According to Marie, the biggest compliment she has received with the show has come from die-hard Beatles fans who have approached her after the show saying that in spite of all the other media they had consumed on their favourite group, they had still learned something new.
"You have to make sure you get it right," said Marie.
To that end, Marie and the team had some help; in 2019 Mary Lu Zahalan joined the team.
Zahalan is the first person to receive a Beatles Master's Degree from Liverpool Hope University, and according to Marie, she really helped develop the show during the pandemic.
Becoming the Beatles was commissioned by ArtHouse, an Ontario charity that provides free art programs in that province.
Since that time, Becoming the Beatles has gone through many iterations to become the presentation that will be coming to Stettler.
To get tickets to the show, check out stettlershowcase.com.
