BWW Interviews: Joe Bithorn, RAIN's 'George Harrison'

When the opening chords of a familiar Beatles tune drifts out of the doors of the Fabulous Fox Theatre on September 17^th, passers by might just think they stepped back in time 40+ years to Liverpool, England. And if they come see RAIN – A Tribute to the Beatles presented by Theater of the Stars September 17 – 19 they might just succeed in that time travel. RAIN – A Tribute to the Beatles, a  show that has been called "the next best thing to seeing The Beatles," boasts a repertoire of Beatles favorites, ranging from such beloved songs as "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and "Hey Jude" to classic hits including "Revolution" and "Come Together."  Playing all those familiar songs, in the guise of George Harrison is Joe Bithorn who will be a part of the show when it returns to Atlanta. I caught up with Joe to learn a little more about his journey.

Let's start with a question about your background. Tell us a little bit about how you got started in the business.

Sure. It has been a very interesting life. My mom and dad were huge classical music fans, really music fans in general. We lived in New York and my parents, coming from Puerto Rico just loved to get their fill of culture. They used to go dancing with big bands and hey saw performers like Frank Sinatra with Tommy Dorsey band, and it was a very exciting time for them to be young and living in New York. My mom worked for the offices of The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and one of the accounts that she worked on was for a man by the name of Alexander Schneider, who was at the time one of the world's greatest violinists along with Isaac Stern. When she was invited to  come to Carnegie Hall, she took my older sister and brother (who is a musician in the Atlanta area) and me and they told me that at a very young age I would go and just be astounded, taking it all in. Then afterwards I would see these people at the Russian Tea Room or at my mom's office. Beverly Sills was in and out of that office, they used to call her Bubbles, and when she would see me there, Beverly would say she wanted to take me home with her. My father also played guitar, and he would teach all of us to sing harmony when we were very young and I became a big fan of harmony in general. I also have two cousins that are latin jazz musicians and in my teens the whole family would get together and we would listen to music like John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk, who actually used to live in my neighborhood and would scare us walking up and down the street.

What did you think you wanted to do when you were growing up? Did you always want to be a musician?

I don't think I had a choice! It was something that I was so interested in and it was like a kid in a candy store to be in that environment,  it would have been crazy to not have been a musician. I don't know what else I would have done.  I was interested in classical guitar too. My dad had a nylon string at the house and I would strum it when I was very young.  He had a friend who would come over with his guitar and he would play these Bach  pieces and all this other music that was unbelievable and I couldn't believe that I was hearing out of six strings. He would play Segovia, and stuff like that. That was a passing fancy at that moment until I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and then it was game over. As for other instruments I play piano, bass, and sing, and actually have picked up a sitar recently.

And you were first part of the touring Broadway musical, Beatlemania. At a young age, with such a quick move to the professional stage, did you feel like you could relate, albeit on a smaller scale, to what John, Paul, George and Ringo may have felt when they were suddenly in the spotlight?

Yeah, I joined it in 1980 and I went out with the tour for about two years. It was quite a trial by fire. I had been kicking around the New York area and said I have to find work, I can't just kick around like this anymore. So a friend of mine had been asked to audition for Beatlemania, and he wasn't going to do it so he brought me down to the audition and reccomended me. And these guys had all rehearsed for six months and I was just joining right then. It was an interesting time for me. I was very green. I had about a week of rehearsal time then they sent me out on the road. I had never even seen the show. When I told the musical director that, he told me to get to the show right away and take notes because I needed to do exactly what the other guy was doing. So that's what I did and then I was up on stage and it was a little scary, but I got it.

And you have been performing with RAIN since 1983? Is that correct? So essentially you have been performing as part of "The Beatles" longer than the real Beatles were together, much longer!

Yeah, basically. I have done a lot of other things also, but for the most part, for my living, I am blessed by their catalog and its just been very, very good.

Some of our readers may have had the chance to see RAIN when it came to Atlanta last year, but many may not have heard of RAIN, or may think they know what to expect from the concept of the show. What can you tell us about the show that someone coming to RAIN might experience?

It's a presentation done chronologically,  and we use a lot of video in the show. We are bring up those memories and those times, and try to take people back in time to those wonderful moments. And the music really takes people back and makes people remember what they felt back then. It's sort of two and a half hours spent transported back in time, by way of that wonderful music. And there are some funny  old commercials too. It's like a big celebration of  the music of the Beatles while bringing you little tidbits of history as well.

And for people who are fans of the Beatles but weren't around at the time, it is a unique opportunity to experience something that otherwise they would only read about or see on TV.

That, and coupled with the fact that everything is live is a wonderful thing. Their music is just so well written, it is like the classical music of our day for most people.  And in the show, there is so much involved. We have live camera projection where we show clips of when the Beatles were playing but we also shoot live audience members too, which is pretty cool.

I saw the show last year and it was filled with songs that the audience was very familiar with.  It felt so much like being at a concert than a theatrical experience that it was quite refreshing. I seemed to forget that I wasn't watching the real Beatles!

Yeah, that's true. I have seen the show with our alternate cast and I am always trying to decide what looks right and am constantly tweaking it. The show coming up in Atlanta will be a little different than when we were there last year. We retooled the show in Toronto, and added some things and changed some things around.  This was partly because we have a Broadway run coming up. We will be at the Neil Simon Theatre on Broadway from October 19 – January 2.

What do you like the most about being part of this show? What do you look forward to the most?

Being on stage. It is such a joy, really, to look at it as a musican and as a performer and just to be able to have that chance to be up there, the opportunity to be there, that's what its about. That is just a joy. Getting yourself ready and doing all the things you have to do, getting your costumes together and the whole deal is the work part of it. But getting to play the music is the real joy.

And its such a great time to be a part of something like this because the Beatles have seen such a revival lately.

Oh, yeah. It's just great on so many levels.

Tell me a little about the fans, do you get to interact much with your fans?

The fans that we have are writing to us now on the internet and our facebook page, etc. . Just being able to answer questions and talk to people is so great. Most of the time they end up asking me a lot of technical questions. They want to know how I make some of the effects, because everything I do up there I pretty much trigger myself, trying to sound like the records.

Is there anything else you would like to share?

Well, we are on our way to Broadway right now and everyone is a little bit more amped up now than normally. But I love the Fox Theatre and it's an amazing thing to be able to play in a place like that. There is so much history it is just great.

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Theater of the Stars will present RAIN – A Tribute to the Beatles at the Fabulous Fox Theatre from Sept 17-19 only. Tickets are on sale now at all Ticketmaster outlets, www.ticketmaster.com  and 800-982-2787.

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Photo credit: Joan Marcus

 

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