By John Berger / jberger@staradvertiser.com
Mark Lewis, founder and manager of “Experience The Beatles with Rain,” the multimedia show that opens Tuesday in the Blaisdell Concert Hall, wants Hawaii to know that the show is about more than four guys playing the songs that everybody knows.
EXPERIENCE THE BEATLES WITH RAINWhere: Blaisdell Concert Hall When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 p.m Saturday; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday Cost: $30-$75; discounted tickets available for Tuesday and Sunday evening shows Info: 800-745-3000, www.ticketmaster.com |
“We take people on a trip through The Beatles era, starting in the ’50s and going through their breakup,” Lewis said last week. ”We use lighting, interactive video, set pieces, you name it.
“We really view ourselves as specialized musicians,” he continued.
“If you’ve ever really listened to a Beatles record, you realize you’ve got to be a great player and you’ve got to be a great musician. You gotta play multiple instruments, you gotta sing in really high keys on a regular basis. You have to be able to harmonize. You have to be able to act and look and perform like the person that you’re trying to portray onstage.”
In short, it takes more than physical similarities, a costume and some makeup.
Clockwise from top left, Joey Curatolo, left, Steve Landes, Ralph Castelli and Joe Bithorn are, respectively, Paul, John, Ringo and George in “Rain.”
“When somebody uses the word ‘impersonator,’ I don’t say it’s insulting, but at the same time, realistically, it doesn’t really accurately convey what we do, which is a high-caliber musical of a band that never really toured that much.”
Lewis traces his interest in The Beatles back to Feb. 9, 1964, when the Fab Four appeared on the “Ed Sullivan Show” for the first time. It was a night that reshaped a generation of Americans. Lewis was one of them.
“These guys arrived (with) a totally new look, a totally different sound. They talked different, they acted different. They were charming. They wrote their own music. They played their own instruments. … It was a totally different thing.”
The Beatles broke up in 1970. A few years after that, Lewis was a member of a Los Angeles bar band whose repertoire included Beatles songs. The group’s long-term goal was national success with its own originals, but as a short-term project the members decided to put all the early Beatles songs they knew in one set and all the “Sgt. Pepper” and “Magical Mystery Tour” songs in another.
The concept “took on a life of its own,” he said.
The band — then named Reign — filled clubs on what had been slow nights, and better offers from bigger venues came in and kept coming. What began as a short-term project became a full-time career.
Lewis retired as a performing member of Reign in 2010, focusing now on management.
Yes, Lewis says, there are a lot of bands out there that play tributes to The Beatles.
“We like to believe that we’ve taken it to a level that nobody else on this planet has done, and we have the credits behind us — from the bars of L.A. on a Monday night … to a movie soundtrack, to being a hit Broadway show, to touring all around the world with what I believe are the best musicians at re-creating the music and the aura of The Beatles on the planet,” Lewis said.
“Now we’re coming to Hawaii.”
MEET RAIN:
JOE BITHORN (George Harrison; vocals, lead guitar). Grew up in Manhattan and Long Island listening to jazz, Latin and classical music. Portrayed Harrison in touring production of “Beatlemania.” Joined Rain in 1983. Also an active studio musician.
Question: What’s the best part of being a member of Rain?
Answer: Working with the other guys who have extensive (musical) backgrounds and talent. … We’re all just huge Beatles fans, among many varied music styles that we all appreciate. For being the Beatles fans that we are, we feel that we hit the mark.
Q: Do you have a favorite period of Beatles music?
A: I enjoy everything, but at the time when they stopped touring and they really concentrated on their efforts as more of studio art as opposed to what they could play live, they really started to create these masterpieces in the studio. It all piqued my interest, but everything “Rubber Soul” and beyond was really an amazing thing. You could tell they were using the studio as their instrument.
Q: What do you like to listen to when you’re not working?
A: What I consider good music is what I like to listen to, and that can range from anything from classical music to jazz to blues.
Q: Is there something you’d like to ask Harrison?
A: At the very, very tail end of “I Need You,” he does some very complex chord work. Technically what it is is he’s using this minor chord but with a minor second to it as well added in. That’s much more of a complex jazz chord. … I’d ask him, “Where did you get that? What did you listen to to hear that?”
JOEY CURATOLO (Paul McCartney; vocals, bass, piano, guitar). Grew up in Brooklyn listening to classical music and opera. Toured with the Broadway production of “Beatlemania.” Joined Rain in 1983. An active singer-songwriter, studio musician and recording artist.
Q: What’s the best part of being a member of Rain?
A: Being able to bring this music to multiple generations and share it with them, because we consider it classical music.
Q: Do you have a favorite period of Beatles music?
A: I prefer “Rubber Soul” to the “Magical Mystery Tour” album, those three or four albums right there, because I think that’s where the band really started to get cohesive with their writing and their abilities in the studio. The early days were exciting … but where they really became the artists that they are was from “Rubber Soul” on.”
Q: What do you like to listen to when you’re not working?
A: I prefer the pop world, but I love classical music — Beethoven, Bacharach and The Beatles!
Q: Is there something you’d like to ask Paul McCartney?
A: At this point in my career, when the day comes that I do meet him, ’cause I’m going to, I will just thank him for the memories and the education. It’s like meeting Mozart. I’d just say, “Thanks for everything. Thanks for giving me the melody of life. Without you I wouldn’t be loving music as much.”
RALPH CASTELLI (Ringo Starr; drums, percussion, vocals). Born and raised in Southern California. Saw The Beatles on the “Ed Sullivan Show” in February 1964 and decided that playing drums was what he was born to do. Portrayed Ringo in the touring production of “Beatlemania” and was also cast as Ringo in “Beatlemania: The Movie.” Joined Rain in 1986.
Q: What’s the best part of being a member of Rain?
A: It goes back to that magical night (in 1964). … There was a drum set in the house, but it wasn’t until that moment in time where I instantly loved The Beatles — loved their outfits, their hair — but I gravitated to Ringo. That’s where it took off for me. The rest is history.
Q: Do you have a favorite period of Beatles music?
A: I love it all. (It’s) very tough to pick but I go through periods. … “Pepper,” “The White Album” and “Abbey Road,” that’s where I was last week.
Q: What do you like to listen to when you’re not working?
A: In the last couple of years, I’ve started to love the music that my parents were listening to (from) the ’40s — bebop, the old-time jazz (and) Frank Sinatra.
Q: Is there something you’d like to ask Ringo Starr?
A: There are so many things I like to ask him … but if it was the right moment in time, I’d thank him for teaching me how to play an instrument and to share it with the world. I would thank him before I asked him anything.
STEVE LANDES (John Lennon; vocals, rhythm guitar, piano, harmonica). A lifelong, second-generation Beatles fan. Taught himself guitar at 10 listening to Beatles records, joined “Beatlemania” at 17. Joined Rain in 1998. A songwriter, recording artist and actor.
Q: What’s the best part of being a member of Rain?
A: Getting to exercise that side of my Beatles fandom. … It’s great to meet other Beatles fans.
Q: Do you have a favorite period of Beatles music?
A: I always loved the early stuff — the youthful energy of 1963, 1964 — when they were still just trying to break out and become something.
Q: Is there something you’d like to ask John Lennon?
A: It would really be great to just sit down and get to know him as a person because there are so many stories, so many conflicting stories (about him). … I can only imagine if I sat down with him, maybe I’d get my own piece of the puzzle.