Photo Flash: Sneak Peek - IMAGINE Brings Beatles Songs, Stories to Life at TNC

The Beatles are one of the most beloved rock bands in history. There's now a show that brings their songs and stories to life - although not by presenting their music. Theater for the New City Executive Director Crystal Field is presenting IMAGINE, a series of scenes and stories inspired by Beatles songs. Scroll down for a sneak peek!

IMAGINE is debuting for a limited run at the cabaret theater, Theater for the New City,155 First Ave., March 9-10 at 8 p.m., March 11 at 3 and 8 p.m. and March 12 at 3 p.m. Tickets are available by clicking here.

Thom O'Connor directs this show, written by Claude Solnik, with a cast of 15, providing a treat for fans of the band and theater goers in general.

"What excited me about this show was the varied tones and themes of the scenes," O'Connor said.

Solnik, a journalist, playwright and Beatles fan, said he started with the idea that lyrics and songs can inspire other works of art. He then decided to "re-imagine" or at least take Beatles songs as inspiration rather than simply staging them.

"I'm not trying to take lyrics and dramatize them," Solnik said. "I wanted to take songs as a starting point and see what I could do with them, to see what ideas I could get from them."

The play was transformed in the rehearsal process as the director and cast, in some cases, re-imagined scenes related to songs such as "Drive My Car," "Eleanor Rigby," "The Fool on the Hill" and others.

The eponymous scene, Imagine, an encounter at Strawberry Fields, originally was written for a man and a woman. O'Connor decided to present it with two women instead. Many of the scenes, like so many of the Beatles' songs, deal with one subject looked at from different angles.

"The force that created and animates our very existence - love," O'Connor said. "Everything you see in the show started with the love of an idea. When someone decided to IMAGINE."

The love of the Beatles is one force animating the show, while the love of theater is another along with love itself. "What I love about theater is that it's not something you can watch again and again by clicking on your mousepad," O'Connor said. "It's something you get to observe and then it's gone."

While IMAGINE won't bring the Beatles back to Manhattan, it is bringing a new type of show to the stage just days after The Fest for Beatles Fans takes place in Jersey City, NJ.

"There's not much in life that we can experience fleetingly anymore and for me that's a shame," O'Connor said. "I tend to think that we would appreciate one another more if we were aware that moments are fleeting, and that with each moment comes an opportunity to witness something new."