Ringo Starr is unlikely to enjoy Lennon, librettist-director Don Scardino's treatment of John Lennon's life and untimely death. In the storybook-theater choral reading that Scardino has engineered to pass for a new musical, drummer Starr is reduced to a goofy expression and a bathroom sight gag.

But Ringo, who happily and to his great financial gain played Dopey to his sidekick Beatle moptops, isn't alone in being disrespected here. Paul McCartney, with whom Lennon shares writing credit for a great percentage of The Beatles' greatest songs, is depicted as something of a wet blanket. Indeed, just about every character trotted out as a supporting player in Lennon's peregrinations is either[...]