IF you are a devotee of tribute shows, the chances are you will have seen The Bootleg Beatles on their regular magical mystery tours that now come with a string section and brass players.

Let It Be is new to York, mounted by producer Jeff Parry on a tour that follows runs in London, Liverpool and Japan and is as much a theatre experience as a concert in its "celebration of the music of The Beatles".

The show is built around a squad rotation system, with at least two players for each role, as deemed the perfect configuration for the supreme Premier League football clubs.

On Monday night, Let It be lined up with Paul Canning as John Lennon; Emanuelle Angeletti as Paul McCartney, John Brosnan as George Harrison and Luke Roberts as Ringo Starr. Michael Bramwell, Ian B Garcia, Reuven Gershon, Paul Mannion and Stuart Wilkinson are all primed for Fab Four selection too.

This keeps the show fresh, with its differing configurations, but everything is well grooved in a very slick production with high-end theatre values, led by creative supervisor Keith Strachan, lighting designer Humphrey McDermot, video designers Darren McCaulley, Duncan McClean and Matthieu St Aunard and musical director John Maher.

The video imagery, both on backdrops and two large television screens, combines contemporaneous film footage from each phase of The Beatles' career with amusingly dated old adverts and new graphics in the style of the age, while live streaming of the band playing is intercut with old reels too.

This all lifts the storytelling aspect of the presentation, but ultimately Let It Be's success still rests on the musicianship and appealing personalties of the performers in their approximation of John, Paul, George and Ringo, right down to their jousting banter.

The authentic detail is impressive, be it Roberts's Ringo smoking a fag while playing at The Cavern or John chewing gum while singing in the later days. The sky darkening as The Beatles play Shea Stadium is another sign of a thoroughly switched-on show that takes the regular path from Liverpool to the Royal Variety Show, New York and Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, flowers, palm trees et al.

The second half brings fresh ideas to presenting such a familiar catalogue, at first envisaging how a Beatles concert might have been in their psychedelic days; then having an acoustic, seated interlude, led off by Angeletti's solo Paul for Blackbird, and the rest joining him one by one, taking in a tribute to the late George Martin with In My Life. Brosnan's Harrison is outstanding in While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

Even more inspired is a re-creation of the Abbey Road album sleeve, the road, the exact clothes, McCartney's bare feet. This is why Let It Be is establishing itself as the apple of Beatles tributes, topped off by the celebratory finale of the "last concert" on the roof of the Apple headquarters". Absolutely Fab Four.

Let It Be, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york