Last night I had the opportunity to see Rain on Broadway, a tribute to the Beatles. I let my friends know I was going, and I was surprised to hear the multiple view point comments. It seems there is a love/hate relationship with the public, which I would not have guessed. This show is all about the music, and I have to say I'm not a huge Beatle fan - I don't own any of their recordings, but I don't turn off the radio if one of their songs comes on. Honestly, I wanted to learn more about the history of the Beatles and consider how they influenced music of their time and mine. The bonus was it was a very entertaining history lesson!
With the multimedia insertion to the show, I was very impressed with how the show reminded you really how different life was in the these decades, especially when the Beatles first burst on the scene. Hindsight is 20/20, and it looked to me that the Beatles were just as influenced by America, as America was influenced by the Beatles. I prefer the pop-like music from the early Beatle sounds. The sound and video were very cool - and it felt authentic. The songs were raw without any electronic smoothing, and I loved how each vocalist was really such a fabulous musician!
The actor playing the Paul McCartney character was simply amazing. He didn't look like Paul per se, but his gestures, dancing, awesome hair and interacting with the band - after a few minutes, you knew exactly who he is portraying. It seems he was also in Beatlemania (the previous Beatles Tribute, which I did not see), so I can only imagine how much time he spent capturing these physical nuances.
Rain is only on Broadway until January 9th - it is a great show for young and old alike - it is fun and you can't help but smile.
