Last Play at Shea new documentary
For the final performance at New York’s doomed Shea Stadium in July 2008, Sir Paul McCartney joined Billy Joel on stage for a duet on “I Saw Her Standing There”. McCartney then performed “Let It Be”. A fitting goodbye to the stadium, who’s era as a concert arena was started by the Beatles in 1965.As we know, the concert was filmed for a future documentary. That documentary is now here, and it’s called “Last Play at Shea”. And it’s a film looking for a distributor. Here’s the description of the film:
“From The Beatles’ first-ever arena performance in 1965 until Billy Joel’s concert before its demolition in 2009, Shea Stadium played host to some of the biggest names in music from around the globe in addition to serving as home to the New York Mets. This lovingly crafted documentary interweaves the history of this recently lost New York City landmark with the career of Long Island native Billy Joel, a performer whose personal connection to the stadium made him the perfect choice to close the curtain on Shea’s storied past.”
“Director Paul Crowder draws on a wealth of historical footage as well as personal interviews with Joel to provide an intimate look at the intersecting histories of a stadium, a team, and a music legend. Set to the soundtrack of Joel’s final Shea performance and featuring exclusive concert footage with guests like Tony Bennett and Roger Daltrey, Last Play pays a timely tribute to one of America’s most significant venues for both music and sports.”
Here’s an excerpt from Dana Brand’s review of the film, we focused on the McCartney part of this:
“The film includes extensive footage from these concerts and it captures the powerful emotional bond between the crowd and Joel and McCartney in particular.”
and
“McCartney lands and in what any New Yorker will recognize as the greatest miracle in the film, makes it from JFK to Shea in eleven minutes. It is exciting to follow his motorcade and it is moving to see him arrive. As ordinary as you could ever ask anyone to be, McCartney gets into the bullpen cart driven by groundskeeper Pete Flynn, who reminds him that he also drove the Beatles onto the field for the concert that created the stadium concert on August 15, 1965.”
and
“McCartney’s miraculous arrival prepares us for the full emotional experience of the last three numbers performed: I Saw Her Standing There, Piano Man, and Let It Be.”
Cast & Credits
Primary Cast: Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, Roger Daltrey, Steven Tyler, Garth Brooks, Tony Bennett, Mike Piazza, Keith Hernandez, Tom Seaver
Director: Paul Crowder
Screenwriter: Mark Monroe
Producer: Steve Cohen, Nigel Sinclair
Executive Producer: Todd Kamelhar, Glen Zipper
Co-Editors: Mike J. Nichols, Paul Crowder
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