The rock-and-roll band Entomo! comes to perform in the town of Thebes at Strawberry Fields. The townspeople fall under their spell and flock to see their fantastical show, featuring the music of the Beatles. Rita Meter, an entertainment journalist, is eager to gain access to the band and the event that could give her her biggest story yet. Lucy, a young, impressionable high school cheerleader, wants to hear the music and has a secret desire to be famous. But her boyfriend Max, wary of the psychedelic band, vows to stop the show to save both his girlfriend and his town.
This is the premise of what was originally a BFA Theatre Arts thesis project by students at Boston University, but has now become a rock-and-roll fantasy sensation. The show, also called Entomo!, took over Harvard Square’s Oberon Club in Cambridge for one night only last Sunday. After getting their tickets ripped, attendees were greeted with “Welcome to Strawberry Fields,” the first of many immersive features of the show.
“The first day I heard it was coming here, I reserved a spot. It was too incredible an opportunity to pass up,” said Alexa Corriea, a BU graduate and current employee of the University. Like many others in the crowd, she had seen the show when it first debuted. A large number of audience members were either students or graduates of Boston University, there to support members of the cast that they knew, as well as to be entranced once again by the magic of the performance, and to rock out to Beatles tunes.
“The whole theater is involved,” said Brooke Morgan, a current student at BU, referring to the first time she saw the performance. The dance floor filled up with people eager to be absorbed in the musical production. There were white sheets hanging all over the club with black graffiti on them.
“It is absolutely amazing,” said Julia Earles, a BU acting major. “I came to see if they made any changes. I’m excited to see it in a new place.”
Maxine Eloi, another BU acting major, called the show very “visceral” and said, “There were pillows and the walls were painted like those sheets last year. They brought back the look. It was more intimate before, but the show was made for a place like this.”
When Entomo! finally began, the band filed onto the stage at the front while other members of the cast stood along the balconies overhead. The lead singer, a fierce free spirited young blonde called Vishnu, wore her hair messy and a long fur trimmed coat over her shirt and tie. The other three band members wore white shirts and straight black ties, paying homage to the original style of the mop top boys, introduced in the 60s. Vishnu stepped to the front of the stage and raised her hand above her face. In her hand was a strawberry, which she lowered slowly and took a bite of as the crowd watched noiselessly. She mulled over its taste for a few seconds before the band started to play “Strawberry Fields Forever” and Entomo! was in full swing.
The musical fantasy wove many popular songs into the story, such as: “Oh! Darling”; “Come Together”; “Yesterday”; “I Want to Hold Your Hand”; “All You Need is Love”; “A Day in the Life,” and numerous others. A clever network of story and song, Entomo! was exciting and interesting. A charming feature for those familiar with the music was Rita Meter tossing out cellophane flowers to the crowd as Lucy sang “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” Details like these that displayed the depth that the creators of Entomo! achieved by weaving song with their storyline. The cast and the band worked effortlessly as one to create this imaginative and unique experience on stage, and the vocal and instrumental ability as they belted out and jammed to the music of the Beatles was remarkable. Entomo! turned the audience on, everyone tuned in, and together all rocked out.