Both as a Beatle and a solo artist, John Lennon pushed the boundaries. Setting the blueprint for pop music to come, Lennon and his fellow mop-top Liverpudlians were constantly reinventing themselves. From good-boy songs “Love Me Do” and “Please Please Me” through to the drug-inspired “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and heavier rock tracks of Abbey Road, the group relied on innovation.

Even today, 36 years after his assassination, Lennon’s pioneering spirit lives on—and that sentiment is expertly captured in writer John Waters’s New York Off-Broadway smash Lennon: Through a Glass Onion.

Inspired, unsurprisingly, by the song “Glass Onion”—John Lennon’s postscript to The Beatles—the critically acclaimed show aims to “peel away the layers of time and myth to offer insight into the essence of the life and astonishing talent of one of the world’s most treasured icons.” Narrating the story of Lennon’s career through his songs, the performance showcases 31 of the artist’s best-loved hits, including “Imagine, “Revolution,” “A Day in the Life,” and “Strawberry Fields Forever.”

One of the most biographied pop stars of all time, the subject matter of the play is not new—but the true invention comes in the way the performance is presented. Half-concert and half-monologue, the two-man show offers a creative insight into the frontman’s thoughts, and promises to reach beyond John Scardino's previous character-driven play Lennon.

Coming to Canada for the first time in October and November, both West Vancouver and White Rock will play host to the critically-acclaimed show.