RAIN: A TRIBUTE TO THE BEATLES Debuts at Balboa Theatre April 21-26

The award-winning Beatles concert, Rain: A Tribute To The Beatles, makes its debut in an electrifying Broadway/San Diego ~ A Nederlander Presentation at the Balboa Theatre, April 21-26, 2009.  In a show the Denver Post calls “the next best thing to seeing The Beatles,” Rain boasts a repertoire of nearly 200 Beatlemaniac favorites, ranging from such beloved songs as “Yesterday” and “Hey Jude” to classic hits including “Revolution” and “Come Together.”

From Ed Sullivan to Abbey Road! They look like them and they sound just like them. All the music and vocals are performed totally live.  Rain covers the Fab Four from their very first Ed Sullivan Show appearance through the Abbey Road album, through the psychedelic late 60s and their long-haired hippie, hard-rocking rooftop days. Rain is a multi-media, multi-dimensional experience ... a fusion of historical footage and hilarious television commercials from the 1960s lights up video screens and live cameras zoom in for close-ups.

For the four longtime band members – Joey Curatolo (Paul McCartney), Joe Bithorn (George Harrison), Ralph Castelli (Ringo Starr) and Steve Landes (John Lennon), with a little help from their friend Mark Lewis (keyboards, percussion) – the music is first and foremost.  For more than two decades, Rain has distinguished itself by focusing on details, always being faithful to The Beatles with the ultimate goal of delivering a perfect note-for-note performance.  All the music is performed live, with no pre-recorded tapes or sequences.  Like The Beatles, the onstage members of Rain are not only supreme musicians, but electrifying performers in their own right.   All the members of the company are available for interviews.

For more info on the production visit www.Raintribute.com.

Steve Landes (Vocals, Rhythm Guitar, Piano, Harmonica) With a singing voice dead-on to the young John Lennon's, Steve was the perfect replacement in Rain for Jim Riddle, the Lennon portrayer who succumbed tragically to a bRain tumor in 1997. The precocious Steve taught himself guitar at 10 listening to Beatles records and by 13 was fronting a Top 40 cover band in his native Philadelphia area. At 17 he joined Beatlemania and further developed his musicianship, including as a Beatlemania roommate and close friend of Riddle; and honed acting skills in an LA play, The Fab Four. After passing the audition with Rain, his career was set. On his travels to England, he found himself at Liverpool's Casbah Club, owned by pre-Ringo Beatles drummer Pete Best. Encouraged to get on stage, Steve belted the rocker Slow Down, on which Lennon sang lead on a 1965 Beatles record. Best cited the performance at a Beatles convention, saying it helped make for one of the best nights ever at the Casbah.  Visit his website at http://www.steve-landes.com/.

Joey Curatolo (Vocals, Bass, Piano, Guitar) Unquestionably the greatest artist to portray Paul McCartney on stage, Joey grew up in a Brooklyn household where classical music and opera formed the soundtrack. A natural musician and singer, he was infatuated with the Beatles when they hit America, taught himself guitar at 10, played piano by ear and at 16 was moonlighting in a traveling Top 40 cover band. At 17, Joey was entered by friends into a McCartney sound-alike contest at a Beatle festival. Without preparation, he won and caught the eye of a producer for the Broadway production of Beatlemania. Joey ended up in the West Coast version. He joined Rain in 1983 - helping propel the band into a class by itself. Today, his vocals and bass, piano and guitar playing remain as powerful as ever.

Joe Bithorn (Vocals, Lead Guitar) George Harrison portrayer Joe grew up on the same Manhattan block where jazz genius Thelonious Monk resided. Steeped in classical music and jazz, young Joe nevertheless dabbled in many genres when teaching himself acoustic guitar. Smitten by the Beatles, at 9 he switched to electric guitar and by 13 was famous in his neighborhood. By 16 he was a studio session musician. He joined a national tour of Beatlemania, mastering Harrison's scouse accent on the job. Joe passed Rain's audition by playing both lead guitar parts simultaneously of And Your Bird Can Sing, which Harrison and McCartney played in the studio. Joe managed the feat by employing double-stop bends on the strings, playing an open E string while bending the B string on the seventh fret. In Rain he manages all sorts of fret-board wizardry - including replicating studio sounds with a guitar synthesizer.

Ralph Castelli (Drums, Percussion, Vocals) The son of Italian immigrants, Ralph Castelli was raised in a talented musical family in Alhambra, California,  where the accordion, guitar and drums surrounded him; where a variety of musical styles from opera to Frank Sinatra were always on the turntable.  By age six, Ralph secretly pounded away on his brother's drum set and Mom's pots and pans. Music was in his blood!  On that momentous night in February, 1964 when The Beatles first appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” Ralph sat in front of the TV and knew that playing drums was what he was born to do. So captivated by Ringo Starr and The Beatles that night, his excitement continued to grow and little did he know at the time exactly how his dream would become a reality.  After performing and touring in numerous bands, Ralph was spotted and received the opportunity to portray Ringo in the Broadway production of Beatlemania.  His drum technique, style, humor, appearance and all his hard work had paid off.  He was also lucky enough to play Starr in the film version of Beatlemania.  Ralph joined Rain in 1986.

Mark Lewis (Keyboards, Percussion) The managerial and creative mind that transformed Rain from a 1970s southern California bar band doing Beatles covers into an ultra-professional act with the best musicians in the world, offstage keyboardist Mark traces his love of the Fab Four to the Sunday night of Feb. 9, 1964, when his generation was smitten by the Beatles appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. An accomplished pianist at 13, having studied since age 5, Mark was soon playing the Farfisa organ in teenage rock bands around his native Los Angeles. After college he met two talented musicians who did Beatles covers in a bar band called Reign. Over the next five years the band gained regional fame, changed its spelling to Rain, cut the soundtrack to the made-for-TV movie “Birth of the Beatles,” but nearly unraveled numerous times trying to do its own songs and win a record contract. Only Mark stuck it out, took over the managerial reins and recruited the committed quartet of proficient musicians and stage performers who would gel into Rain's longstanding lineup. Mark ensures the Beatles' studio sound is replicated in full during Rain shows, playing piano and organ and inserting necessary sounds of the Beatles background instrumentation he's painstakingly recorded.

 In their production of "Rain: The Beatles Experience", this show is a multi-media, multi-dimensional event which features 5 different scene and costume changes, 3 video screens, and live camera projection, combining television commercials and historical video footage from the '60's. As anyone who has witnessed Rain in concert will attest, the music is first and foremost, and is recreated with the utmost care and integrity. Rain distinguishes itself by focusing on details, and delivers a perfect note for note performance.

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