'Experience the Beatles with RAIN' - My Review

Experience the Beatles with RAIN is more than a tribute band playing the music of the iconic group. With great sets, wonderful lighting, perfect costumes (especially the wigs) and four, well really five, wonderfully talented musicians/actors, the show is more like attending several Beatles concerts from different eras in their career in the same night.

My young musician and I had complimentary tickets and we enjoyed every minute, as did all of the members of the opening night audience. The large group included five generations of Beatles fans and there was a respectable amount of the under-18 crowd present; we know because they got to sing alone at one point in the show. This show is so good that even someone who doesn't consider themselves a fan of the Beatles would enjoy it, but for those die-hard fans, this is Heaven on earth territory.

An opening announcement promises that the performance contains no pre-recorded music whatsoever. The four men that channel the Fab Four are all members of the original Broadway cast and all were part of Beatlemania (remember that one?) They are "helped out" by a talented keyboard player, Mark Beyer, who was not in costume but definitely fills out the sounds on the later pieces. Paul McCartney is expertly played by Joey Curatolo. Joe Bithorn plays George Harrison (and does a mean guitar solo) while Steve Landes plays John Lennon with a great accent. Ralph Castelli spends virtually the entire show on an elevated platform playing the drums as Ringo Starr.

The resemblance to the original band members is very close and the actors stay in character between the songs, whether to tell a joke or politely but firmly to tell a fan to stop recording the show. It was quite dramatic to see the transformations as the musicians aged from mop-top young men to their older versions at the end of the group's career.

The production values of the show were impressive as well, from the simpler black and white sets and videos (projected on two screens and eventually at the back of the stage) to the psychedelic colors that marked the later years.

I wrote down the set list that was performed in chronological order, but I won't spoil it for the reader. The press release states that "RAIN performs the full range of The Beatles' discography live onstage, including some of the most complex and challenging songs that the Fab Four recorded in the studio but never performed in front of an audience." Suffice it to say that the opening included all the early hits from "Hard Day's Night" to "Help" at Shea Stadium.

The cameras that often projected the musicians as they performed were sometimes turned on the audience members. So, present day girls were added (in black and white, natch) to footage of screaming girls from the fifties. It was very effective and fun, but thankfully was not overused because I found myself missing the show to look for myself on the screen. My son spotted a WAMS classmate right away on the screen and I was impressed that the young people knew so many of the words to all of the songs.

When they entered the Sgt. Pepper era, "Lucy" was accompanied with amazing lighting and video and we all got to sing along to "When I'm 64." After a 20 minute intermission, we entered "Strawberry Fields" and themes of peace and love and a beautiful acoustic "Blackbird." The Abby Road era included "Come Together" and "Get Back," and the encore was amazing.

This was an amazingly interactive show; everyone was singing along unguardedly and we were invited to stand up and dance during a few numbers. I didn't see anyone of any age who did not appear to be having a great time throughout the show. The show features nine new songs that have not been heard in previous productions. Go see this one for an evening of nostalgia and fun.

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