Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles Broadway Reviews

In the end, 'Rain' is as good as you want it to be. It hits all the right notes, but an imitation is still an imitation.

In short, if you like this sort of thing, you're going to like this.

You may also feel like you’ve wandered into a lavish theme bar mitzvah planned by an overenthusiastic mom.

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!'

As to whether 'Rain' has a right to be on Broadway, the answer is yes. Whatever attracts enough of an audience to fill the seats deserves a chance on the Main Stem. It's just a pity that a production more suited to Atlantic City or Las Vegas is crowding out shows with stories and characters, even for a few weeks.

Indeed, Rain might well be the brilliantly empty apotheosis of the jukebox musical: the songs it knows the audience wants to hear, unencumbered by a script that may or may not work. Without its plot, Good Vibrations would have been a pleasant night of cute kids in bathing suits singing Beach Boys hits. Ring of Fire, one of the small handful of shows I've fled at intermission, would have been just a Johnny Cash revue. This drama-free exercise is not, then, a play. And it's debatable whether it's really worth spending $121.50 for an orchestra seat to what by all rights you should be seeing in a bar.

It's also proof of the Beatles' enduring, generation-crossing cool. In a canny move, 'Rain' showers attention on that fact. Every age group got an appreciative mention, from boomers raised on the Beatles to teens just discovering the group is something to twist and shout about.

I bet a fair share of Broadway purists are going to rain all over the 'Rain' parade. It's essentially a multimedia tribute to the music of The Beatles and to call it theatre would be ludicrous. Yet, as the great Bard himself wrote, 'What's in a name...' 'Rain' may not be theatre but it sure is entertaining.

The Beatles are back -- or at least the Beatles tribute band Rain, which has been singing the songs and donning the costumes for more than 25 years. Troupe has finally brought its act to Broadway with a concert playing 12 weeks at the Neil Simon, filling a scheduling vacuum prior to the March previews of 'Catch Me If You Can.' Show should find enough diehard Beatles fans to fill the seats and sell the souvenirs, although there is little of the excitement or danger of the original foursome, or much electricity, either.

Consider it enhanced karaoke, like a collective night in front of a giant television playing the new Beatles video game, but without requiring the kind of hand-eye coordination and technological savvy so vexing to the middle-aged....All appear to be having a good time and succeeded in giving the enraptured audience at the performance I caught a good time, too.

Aside from some cool-looking psychedelic scenery, Rain doesn't offer anything especially new. If you loved or hated 1977's Beatlemania, you already know your opinion of this show. (Indeed, all four cast members have performed in various iterations of that oft-revived revue.) Then again, maybe qualities like novelty and originality are beside the point here. Rain isn't worth overthinking. To quote a Beatles classic that didn't make the cut, just turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream for a quick fix of nostalgic cheer.

There is dumbed-down, Monty Python-style animation, trippy lighting recalling the Joshua Light Show and the inevitable wig and costume changing. There is even, occasionally, a bit of singing to remind us of the power of the Lennon/McCartney partnership. Primarily, however, 'Rain' is a Vegas act for All Hallow's Eve -- a rock horror show.

So what harm comes from 'Rain,' the aging Beatles cover band and paint-by-numbers multimedia show that has settled on...

From purely musical and vocal points of view, the band is sensitive and masterful.

Although purists might sneer at this concert/theatrical experience, there's no denying that, as cover bands go, this is one of the best.

For anyone who has spent the past decade lamenting the rise of jukebox musicals, Rain: A Tribute to The Beatles on Broadway (* * ½ out of four) is either a new low point or a refreshingly honest enterprise.

Created by veterans of the revue 'Beatlemania,' this tribute show feeds off a seemingly endless appetite for all things Paul, John, George and Ringo. But after a show like this, the only impression that is left are those classic songs. And that's as it should be.