Beatles' Abbey Road sessions made into musical

Beatles fans are to be offered a glimpse of the creative process that spawned a number of the band’s most famous albums – in the shape of a new stage musical based on the Abbey Road recording sessions.

Described as “a musical documentary”, The Sessions at Abbey Road – which will open at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 1 April 2016 – will emulate the process by which albums such as Revolver and Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band were made, using a stage replica of building’s Studio Two.

The show will open on 1 April 2016. Its producer, Stig Edgren, told the Times: “It will be a musical documentary giving audiences an honest, respectful and accurate re-creation of how music history was made.”

Although the studio will be re-created in its exact dimensions – 18 x 11.5 metres (60 x 40ft), complete with a mixing booth – Edgren said the show’s actors would not so precisely resemble John, Paul, Ringo and George: “We’re not trying to look like the Beatles. We [are] trying to sound like them. The idea is you’re watching them in recording-session mode.”

The Sessions at Abbey Road will span the Beatles’ career and their creative output from 1962 to 1969, using period equipment and enlisting 39 musicians and eight singers to re-create the sound.

An “incredible amount” of research had gone into the show, according to producer Jef Hanlon. “All instrumentation, arrangements and vocals will be performed identically to the original recordings. There will even be eight singers to re-create the multitracked vocals pioneered by the Beatles.

“This show does not seek to be a lookalike show, but rather a sound-alike, with the singers being the best Beatles imitators in the world.”

Earlier this year, Abbey Road Studios announced that it would launch its own educational institute for students aged 18-plus to study for a 12-month advanced diploma in music production and sound engineering.