JOHN LENNON - ASTORIA THEATER PROMO POSTER. Just under 24 x 36. THIS AUCTION contains a VERY RARE PROGRAM from the event. This is from the VERY FIRST Showing of the play before it was closed. it was 1985. The Astoria Theatre was the first of a small chain of Astoria theaters in and around London. LENNON - The musical opened to VERY POOR REVIEWS. Michael Billington in The Guardian called the show ''a bland musical celebration ... (presenting) a rather sanitized, sanctified Lennon. Because this poster was only used for a VERY short time, due to the poor performance of the play, the posters were pulled and not made available !!! GET THIS RARE ITEM NOW!
John Barber in The Daily Telegraph thought the musical ''leaves behind an aftertaste of casual effrontery and opportunities missed ... (making) the worst of an extraordinary story.''
The show opened Saturday at the Astoria Theater in London. It was first presented in 1981 at the Everyman Theater in Liverpool, Lennon's hometown.
''Lennon'' casts two actors as the slain ex-Beatle.
Mark McGann, who plays Lennon in the forthcoming NBC TV-movie ''Imagine: The Story of John and Yoko,'' appears as the younger Lennon up to his marriage to Yoko Ono. Jonathan Barlow takes the role through to Lennon's slaying in New York on Dec. 8, 1980.
Lynda Murdin in The Standard said ''it is almost impossible to take your eyes off the look-alike McGann,'' but she denounced the musical as ''a sketchy biography that depends heavily on audience pre-knowledge.'' THIS AUCTION contains a VERY RARE PROGRAM from the event. This is from the VERY FIRST Showing of the play before it was closed.

VG