RAIN - A TRIBUTE TO THE BEATLES Reviews

Today is Tuesday, October 26, marking the official opening night performance for musicians Joey Curatolo, Joe Bithorn, Ralph Castelli, Steve Landes and Mark Beyer who will rock the Neil Simon, as The Beatles in "Rain – A Tribute to The Beatles". This incarnation has toured extensively, and will now play a 12-week Broadway engagement, which began previews, October 19, and will run through January 9, 2011.

As noted previously, certain performances of will also feature Graham Alexander, Joe Bologna, Doug Cox, Jim Irizarry, David Leon, Jimmy Pou, Mac Ruffing and Tom Teeley.

Beatles songs featured in the concert event include "I Want To Hold Your Hand," "Hard Day's Night," "Yesterday," "Twist and Shout," "With A Little Help From My friends," "Eleanor Rigby," "Strawberry Fields," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Hey Jude," "When I’m 64," "I Am The Walrus," "Revolution" and "Come Together."

"From the early days of their appearance on 'The Ed Sullivan Show' in 1964 through Sgt. Pepper and on to the Abbey Road years, Rain performs it all," begin production notes. "The multi-media concert recaptures the era through all phases of The Beatles astounding musical career including Shea Stadium, the psychedelic late 60s and The Beatles long-haired hippie, hard-rocking rooftop days. A fusion of historical footage and hilarious television commercials lights up video screens and live cameras zoom in for close-ups."

I personally caught the show (in-full) when it aired on PBS a couple months back. I find it fitting that it's coming to NY, what with Lennon's 70th birthday having just passed (and) December marking the 30th anniversary of his death. Though, in reality, I wouldn't rush-out and buy tickets if I wasn't a fan going-in. Not too sure what the critics'll think of this. Here's hoping the show gets good notices.

Best,
- M

In the middle of the first half of RAIN (I won't call it the "first act", because that would imply that this has something to do with theater) the curtain comes down and we get to watch several minutes of vintage TV commercials on the large TV screens on the sides of stage. THAT was a welcome interruption.

I'm sure there have been dozens of tribute bands over the past 30 years that have captured the spirit of the Beatles with more authenticity than these guys. Yes, they approximate the sounds of the Beatles, but if Eleanor Rigby lacks any warmth and pathos, it's not right. Most of the songs fail in similar ways.

This does inspire me to watch all my Monty Python DVDs (the visuals often rip off that style) and I guarantee I'll be watching A Hard Day's Night and Yellow Submarine within the next few days to see just how many ideas they stole for their projections.

Having just seen American Idiot the night before, I was very much aware of how thrilling and theatrical a rock show can be. It's worth noting that in the program credits for Rain there is nobody listed as "director", which might explain why this presentation has no sense of direction.

Every time one of the cast members shouted out "are you having a good time?" to the audience, I refrained from answering, although I will admit that most of the audience responded positively. I guess if you like this kind of thing, you'll like this kind of thing.

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Updated On: 10/26/10 at 10:05 AM

I doubt Sir Paul will show up. These guys have been around for a long time. I would suspect if he wanted to see the show he has seen it already.

TSR, I thought the vintage commercials were fun and I enjoyed the re-creation of the old Beatles' pictures. They aren't "spot on" with the voices but, again, I enjoyed it. More than I thought I would. I agree with you about them shouting "are you having a good time?". They asked that a few too many times. I am not a big audience participation person so I didn't shout back.

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Just what Broadway needs, another glorified Vegas lounge act. NOT

Rain, Rain, go away!

To think that a year ago the same theater housed the beautiful revival of Ragtime, now this garbage.

I was there tonight.

It's not the worst piece of entertainment I have seen. It's fun, but it also really really TRIES too much to be liked.

Highlight of the evening was watching the vintage TV commercials. But I visit YouTube for that...

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Well I loved it!!!! I want to go again. It was great fun and it seemed most of the audience agreed. It was like being at a Beatles concert (that's what they were intending). The lighting and effects were fantastic. It made me feel young again and that's good. I was and still am a HUGE Beatles fan. This captured the spirit of them. Some of you say that it doesn't...WRONG.....if you remember the group stopped giving live concerts in 1966, by 1968 they were fighting like cats and dogs and it showed. This show captured their attitude at that time. Those of you who are naysayers were not REAL Beatles fans.

THERE I LOVED IT SO MUCH I DOUBLE POSTED!!!!

Updated On: 10/27/10 at 12:10 PM

Oh yeah, I think they made some subtle changes to the Broadway version: No bic lighters used, they did not say "are you having a good time once".....although they asked other things. Sid Bernstein was introduced at some point, which was pretty poignant....got a standing O. And the light explosion at the end of the first act....is that the same one as on the tour? It was pretty intense.

It is SOOOO stupid that they don't even play the song that the show is named after. That's where they lost me. That's just awful planning.

Pammy, I noticed some changes that were a bit more than subtle to me. At least from what I remember, they didn't use the flowers or that set piece on the right when I saw it.

I don't think the show was in any way upstaged by the tv commercials. I do think hey should play the song that the show is named after. Not sure if they will do this for the Broadway run, but during the tour they rotated songs. Not sure how they did it. Whether it was night to night or city to city. my favorite Beatles song is listed on the website but they didn't sing it the night I saw the show.

I am a big fan of the Beatles. Not a rabid fan but I love their music. As I am sure they want the show to do, it brought back a lot of good memories.

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