Rain delivers with entertaining and satisfying tribute to Beatles

To get that 800-pound gorilla out of the way at the top: How long does to it take for a hard-core Beatles fan watching the Rain tribute to accept a Paul McCartney who plays that iconic Hōfner bass right-handed?

The answer is: not long at all. Rain bassist Joey Curatolo certainly looks and sounds like the "cute Beatle," and the two-hour production at Blaisdell Concert Hall lives up to its billing as an opportunity to "experience" the Beatles, as the cast becomes more convincing as the show progresses.

Ralph Castelli is a great fit visually as Ringo Starr. Joe Bithorn looks amazingly like George Harrison while portraying "the quiet Beatle" in the "Abbey Road" segment. Steve Landes likewise captures the look of John Lennon in the group’s later years.

Looks aside, the quartet’s musicianship is never an actors’ illusion. The Faux Four do justice to the Beatles’ music throughout, often playing at stadium-concert decibel levels.

"Experience the Beatles with Rain" covers all the basic chapters in Beatles history, from the band’s arrival in America in 1964 to its breakup six years later. The first half of the show re-creates the Beatles’ performances on the "Ed Sullivan Show" in 1964, songs from "A Hard Day’s Night" and the Shea Stadium concert in 1965. It continues with a look at what might have been if the Beatles had done songs from "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band" as concert material, and ends with a magnificent rendition of "A Day in the Life" that builds impressively to that final power chord.

The second half is an apparently random selection of songs from "Rubber Soul," "Revolver," "The Beatles," "Abbey Road" and "Let It Be," and some songs that weren’t released as album tracks until after the Beatles disbanded.

"Hey Jude" wasn’t the Beatles’ final release, but it is an excellent choice as the final sing-along that caps the encore.

Don’t be surprised if you’re singing along with Rain long before that.

The concert is embellished with video clips that capture the mood of the ’50s and ’60 and show Rain performing as the Beatles. Images of amazingly detailed original artwork representative of Beatles art are as clever in concept as Eric Idle’s classic Rutles parodies of the 1970s.

Shots of the audience at the Sullivan show and Shea concert are interspersed with live shots of the Blaisdell audience. A lot of people were seen enjoying themselves on the big screen at Tuesday’s opening-night performance.

Rain includes a "fifth Beatle," keyboardist Mark Beyer, who provides all the additional instruments needed to re-create the Beatles’ recordings on stage. Beyer performs off-stage for the early segments — adding Lennon’s harmonica part on "Please Please Me," for example. He joins the others on stage after intermission and is introduced to the audience — "Who is that man back there?" — just before they do "In My Life."

Beyer’s role is acknowledged again when he joins the others as they take their final Beatles-style bow in what is a thoroughly entertaining tribute to the most acclaimed band in musical history.