The Fab 5 live on as Backbeat, the stage version of the award winning 1994 film about the early years of The Beatles, will have its West End premiere in the autumn. The play was written by Iain Softley, the film’s creator, and is directed by David Leveaux. It will open on 10 October 2011 (Previews will be in September) at London’s Duke of York Theatre, it will run until 24 March 2012. Tickets are already on sale.

The film starred Stephen Dorff as Stuart Sutcliffe, Ian Hart and Sheryl Lee. The film was co-written and directed by Softley. The stage play has its world premiere at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre in February 2010. It is set during the ‘Hamburg Tears’ in the early 1960s before the band become, as Lennon put it, ‘more famous than God’. It focuses on the relationship between Stuart Sutcliffe, who left the Beatles just before the became famous, after falling in love with Astrid Kirchherr, a German photographer, Sutcliffe handed his guitar over to Paul McCartney and died of a brain hemorrhage in Hamburg aged just 22. His portrait features on the album cover for Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Casting got the West End show has yet to be announced.

Backbeat will includ some Beatle songs including ‘Twist & Shout’, ‘Rock & Roll Music’, ‘Long Tall Sally’ ‘Please Mr Postman’ and ‘Money’.

Producer Karl Sydow commented today: “Backbeat at the Duke of York’s Theatre will allow people the experience of being at the birth of the Beatles. It tells a story that many music fans may not know, set to a musical backdrop that absolutely defined the early Sixties. Next year will mark 50 years since the Beatles released their first single, and I am proud to be bringing their early days to life in the West End.”