Review: Beatles tribute ‘Rain’ pours out 30 hits

Cover band concert tour makes a 12-week visit to Broadway

BY MICHAEL SOMMERS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

BROADWAY REVIEW

Opening Tuesday at the Neil Simon Theatre, "Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles on Broadway" honestly lives up to its name.

Four musicians groomed to resemble The Beatles enthusiastically play and sing sound-alike covers of the group's greatest hits. Before the concert begins, an announcement states that these guys really are performing these songs without any prerecorded segments.

Their list of 30 facsimile renditions is organized more or less chronologically from "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" through the Abbey Road years and concludes with encores of "Let It Be" and "Hey, Jude."

Initially dressed in skinny suit-n-ties and mop-top hair for the "Ed Sullivan Show" opening, the band periodically reappears in later Beatles attire. While the musicians change wigs and outfits, three large video screens show 1960s commercials and documentary footage. There is also a Beatles trivia quiz.

Whenever the band performs, the screens display colorful collages, trippy videos, live close-ups of the musicians and similarly atmospheric visuals abetted by requisites such as swirling concert lighting and roiling banks of smoke.

Thankfully there is no attempt to tell a story. Every so often one of the musicians yells something like, "Hey, New York, get on your feet — it's time to rock and roll!"

At least half a dozen times the audience is encouraged to clap along and/or sing along. And so it goes for something over two hours, including a 20-minute intermission.

So it is what it is: Rather than thinking of "Rain" as a jukebox musical regarding The Beatles, the actual show is more like a highly animated version of a Madame Tussaud's installation — sort of a "Fab Faux."

"Rain" continues through Jan. 9 at the Neil Simon Theatre, 250 W. 52nd St., New York. Call (877) 250-2929 or visit www.raintribute.com.