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When The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band turned

50—50!—in 2017, the city of Liverpool marked the occasion

with an ambitious, multidisciplinary festival honoring the

seminal album. Thirteen works—one for each track on the

recording—were commissioned to celebrate what is often

considered not just the finest achievement of Liverpool’s

beloved native sons—John Lennon, Paul McCartney,

George Harrison, and Ringo Starr—but also the

greatest rock album of all time.

Leading off the festivities of “Sgt. Pepper

at 50” was Pepperland, a world premiere by

Mark Morris that captivated critics and

audiences alike. Performed by the Mark

Morris Dance Group (MMDG) and

set to a score by jazz artist Ethan

Iverson, the choreographer’s

former music director,

Pepperland was hailed as “a

truly joyous, celebratory work

of art” by the critic for The Telegraph, and

“a gorgeously entertaining and witty tribute” by the critic

for The Guardian. MMDG brings the

piece to Segerstrom Hall for three

performances, June 14–15.

Sgt. Pepper, says Morris, “was

abundant with new musical ideas; a

new kind of studio-born performance;

a never-before-heard confluence of

music world conventions; a witty, sad,

surprising, and moving musical trip. In a

fully staged, newly re-approached music and

dance show, we accept[ed] the challenge of presenting a

contemporary reading of this great artifact.”

The choreography abounds with Morris’ signature

musicality, waggishness, intelligence and inventiveness. Elizabeth

Kurtzman’s boldly colored costumes capture the essence of mod

Carnaby Street. “I think Mark realized early on that this piece wasn’t

just about The Beatles; it was about the swinging ’60s and the opening

up of a culture,” says Iverson. “He was a boy during that time, so he

remembers it. He’s just old enough to have seen The Beatles live one

time, and he was there for that great love-in of the late ’60s.”

The score, performed by an unusual chamber music ensemble of

Captures the Magic of The Beatles

Mark Morris Dance Group celebrates the 50th anniversary of an iconic album

BY SHERYL FLATOW

voice, theremin, soprano sax, trombone and keyboards, features new

arrangements of the title song, “With a Little Help from My Friends,”

“When I’m Sixty-Four,” “Within You Without You,” “Penny Lane”

(which was planned for the original album but was issued earlier, as

a single) and “A Day In the Life,” intermingled with original pieces in

classical forms including Allegro, Scherzo, and Adagio.

“I listened to Sgt. Pepper a lot when I was in high school,” says

Iverson, a founding member of label-defying trio The Bad Plus.

“When Mark asked me to do this piece, I said yes with great joy

because I knew he’d do something special; it was not going to be a

Beatles cover event, which is the worst. I went and listened to the

record again and confirmed that it’s a masterpiece. But I also felt there

was potential for deconstruction and for a kind of fresh take on the

whole scenario. Mark and I didn’t talk too much about what the piece

would be, but he made a joke about how what people really want is

a sing-along, karaoke with a bouncing ball. That’s the danger. I’ve

seen so much where you try to rock out harder than the original with

nostalgia, and that’s the energy I sought to avoid.”

Iverson says that his longtime working relationship with Morris

gave him a “clear idea” of how to approach the score. “Mark is really

great with European classical music and finds ways to use that old

material in a fresh, American style,” he says. “Sgt. Pepper itself is very

informed by classical music. The anecdote I always cite is when Paul

McCartney saw Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 on TV, and then

came in and told [producer] George Martin that he wanted a piccolo

trumpet solo in ‘Penny Lane.’ The structures of the songs on the album

are complicated. Bar bands can’t play Sgt. Pepper because the forms are

quite elaborate. That’s another kind of reference to classical music.”

George Harrison’s “Within You Without You” holds a special place

in the Pepperland score because its Indian-inspired sound reminded

Iverson of Morris’ major collaborations with the composer Lou

Harrison [no relation], whose compositions were infused with elements

of Eastern music. “Mark told me that ‘Within You Without You’ was

essentially the first time he’d been exposed to the classical music of

India. I felt that needed to be the centerpiece because I’ve seen so much

great Mark Morris dance with that Pan-Asian sensibility. Lou Harrison

was Mark’s composer, and ‘Within You Without You’ in my arrangement

is a bit of an homage to that classic Mark Morris-Lou Harrison

perspective. It’s also very hippies and ’60s, and Mark has that in his

work: Wouldn’t this be a better place if we just loved each other and let

everybody be. And that’s expressed in that song and in the dance.”

The Sgt. Pepper album cover is just about as iconic as the album

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Photo by Gareth Jones

itself. In the center are The Beatles, costumed in colorful band regalia

and standing next to another image of themselves from their early

days as the Fab Four. Behind them are dozens of images of celebrities

and historical figures. “Magna Carta,” the second movement of

Pepperland, is “a formal invocation of personalities from the LP cover,”

according to Iverson.

“One of the things I’ve seen Mark do when he’s working with a

lot of text on an opera or an oratorio is he’ll have the dancers take on

these characters for a moment,” says Iverson. “I thought, ‘Well, there

are a lot of characters on that cover.’ So I wrote a simple cue and said,

‘All right, pick whoever you want to be celebrated and presented to the

audience.’ And that’s what he did. It seemed important, because the

cover is part of the mythos of the LP.”

For all the exuberance in Pepperland, there are hints of rumblings

below the surface. “I think Pepperland is a joyous piece,” says Iverson.

“Audiences leap up at the end like they’re so happy to have been

there. At the same time, there’s not a song that doesn’t have a darker

undercurrent that’s brought out. I would say that’s why the piece is

successful. It isn’t just nostalgia, just pretty music that will make us all

feel so good about ourselves. In ‘When I’m Sixty-Four,’ for instance,

there’s certainly awkwardness and sadness. But if you think about it,

the song itself is sort of sad.

“One of the things I like to say about the art I really like is that

there’s something mysterious about it,” Iverson continues. “There is

mystery in Sgt. Pepper. The Beatles caught lightning in a bottle.”

Sheryl Flatow is a frequent contributor to Center publications.

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MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUPPEPPERLANDSEGERSTROM HALLDates: June 14 & 15Tickets: $29 and up

The Center’s International Dance Series is made possible by:Audrey Steele Burnand and The Segerstrom Foundation

For tickets and information visit SCFTA.org or call (714) 556-2787 Group services: (714) 755-0236

Photo by Robbie Jack

Fashion on London’s Carnaby Street, circa 1965.