About three years ago, playwright and director Todd Olson started flirting with the idea of writing a play about The Beatles without actually writing about John, Paul, George and Ringo.
“It didn’t make sense to write them as characters since they were such characters themselves,” said Olson, the one-time artistic director of St. Petersburg’s American Stage.
“I didn’t want to do any kind of jukebox revue because that’s been done, but I still love all their stories. I love their history,” he said.
From left, Jill Schroeder, Aden Russell, Joan Morgan, Lilian Moore, Hancy Huffaker and Karen Kelly star in “Beatle Girls” by Todd Olson at Tree Fort Productions. Photo provided by Tree Fort Productions
And then he discovered the 2013 documentary “Good Ol’ Freda,” about Freda Kelly and the other young women who ran their fan club and found his gateway. “They were all teenagers, including The Beatles. They had an intense decade together.”
The result was “Beatle Girls,” which has its Sarasota premiere as the season-opening attraction at Tree Fort Productions.
Olson has written nearly 30 plays and musicals, including the popular Frank Sinatra revue “My Way” and “I Left My Heart: A Salute to the Music of Tony Bennett,” both co-created with his frequent collaborator David Grapes. He also adapted a couple of Agatha Christie novels.
When the idea started percolating, he was leading the Blue Ridge Community Theater in Blue Ridge, Georgia, which he said was “in need of a play for mature women, six women aged 55 to 75.” He created “Beatle Girls” as a memory play with the former fan club leaders looking back at their teenage loves.
“It broke our attendance record up here and then another theater nearby did it. Now a lot of theaters have asked for the script and are considering it,” he said.
Katherine Michelle Tanner, the founder and artistic director of Tree Fort, has a long history with Olson, having acted at American Stage during his tenure. He also directed her performance in Jessica Dickey’s one-woman play “The Amish Project” at both American Stage and Sarasota’s Banyan Theater Company.
The Tree Fort cast features Jill Schroeder, Aden Russell, Joan Morgan, Lilian Moore, Nancy Huffaker and Karen Kelly.
“I don’t think we see enough women on stage that age, looking back on something they lived through,” Tanner said. “And we’ve got that talent in this city.”
Olson said the play covers the years from 1963 to 1970, but because it’s a memory play he is also able to touch on frequent rumors about Beatles reunions, the impact of the deaths of John Lennon and George Harrison and what the band members meant to their fan club leaders.
Director and playwright Todd Olson wrote “Beatle Girls” about the young women who ran The Beatles fan club as a way to share stories about the Fab Four. Photo provided by Tree Fort Productions
Olson went his own way on specifics about the women and used them to help share stories about the group.
“They were all Liverpool teenagers. They followed The Beatles at the Cavern Club and when Brian Epstein took over the group, he asked one of them to lead the fan club and hired an office full of girls to do it,” Olson said. At the height of the fan club, they had more than 300,000 subscribers.
Olson said he had fun researching and writing the play and focused on “finding those odd little anecdotes that we didn’t know. They gave some hilarious press conferences. I researched the ones that they did when they came to America and some of their snappy answers to reporters’ questions. In my play, the girls become these reporters as they’re covering these tours. We get some of this banter that actually happened but maybe don’t know so much about.”
One of those stories involves drummer Ringo Starr, who became fast friends with some Indiana state troopers before a 1965 Indianapolis concert.
“They probably drank a bit and drove around the Indianapolis 500 all night long. He was so exhausted, when he showed up for the concert, he couldn’t work. His feet were so numb. The concerts were so loud that no one could tell that he wasn’t playing,” he said.
Olson doesn’t have favorites among The Beatles.
"They're all interesting in their way. Musically, I’ve always admired Paul McCartney the most, but in later years I probably listened to George Harrison more and what Ringo Starr is doing now, still recording, even country music. It’s astonishing that both Paul and Ringo are still putting out new music.”
“Beatle Girls” runs Oct. 2-11 at Tree Fort Productions, 3501 S. Tamiami Trail in the Crossings at Siesta Key Shopping Center. Tickets are $40, or $140 for a four-show subscription. treefortproductionsprojects.com/buy-tickets-2026-2027/
