Mark Morris: Pepperland review – Beatles with a touch of Broadway shuffle

Mark Morris: Pepperland review – Beatles with a touch of Broadway shuffle

Sgt Pepper at 50 was conceived as a celebration of the Beatles’ legacy. The festival, which brings together artists as disparate as Jeremy Deller, Judy Chicago and DJ Spooky, all of them inspired by the album’s songs, opened on Thursday night with the premiere of Mark Morris’s Pepperland. The American choreographer is based in Brooklyn, and his response to the album has been to take half a dozen tracks, relocate them somewhere not too far off Broadway, and reinvent them as jazzy show tunes for the 15 dancers of his company.