If I'd remembered that January 30th was the anniversary of the last public Beatles' performance, I'd have had my review of Across the Universe (a jukebox musical incorporating their songs) ready and posted last week. But better late than never, I suppose.
Set in the late 1960s, our story starts off in Liverpool, where Jude (Jim Sturgess) is pining over a relationship that apparently ended badly. We then flashback to a few months prior, with Jude leaving for America to find his long-lost father, which doesn't go well. Meanwhile, Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood) is bidding her boyfriend Daniel goodbye as he heads off to fight in Vietnam. Their paths cross when Jude helps Lucy's brother Max (Joe Anderson) out of a jam, and the two become friends. Max is a rebel against his upper-class family and life at Princeton, and he drops out of college to move to Greenwich Village, and since Jude doesn't have anything else to do. They end up in an enclave run by Sadie (Dana Fuchs), an aspiring singer, where they enjoy a hedonistic existence. The enclave attracts other people who have nowhere else to go, such as Prudence (T.V. Carpio), a runaway high-school girl struggling with her abusive boyfriend and secret homosexuality, and Jo-Jo (Martin Luther McCoy), whose brother was killed during the 1967 Detroit race riot and who now lives only for his music. Jo-Jo and Sadie end up becoming an item, musically and romantically. Meanwhile, Lucy ends up joining Jude and Max after Daniel is killed in Vietnam, and she and Jude gradually fall in love.
Oh, and good luck resisting the urge to sing along with some of your personal favorites - it ain't gonna happen.