If nostalgia shows still are a thing a half century from now, and the Mayo Performing Arts Center still is going strong, who do you think people will be coming to see?
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It’s a question for all ages. Who among today’s stars has the staying power, the song catalog, the mythology, to fill seats, and inspire tribute acts like Rain, the Beatles band that has been pleasing crowds since 1975?
After Tuesday’s highly entertaining Rain production at MPAC (and fun shows this month by Brian Wilson, Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits, and the re-seeded Grass Roots), I also wondered how many current oldies acts — many of which hearken back 50 years or more to the 1960s–will survive into the late 21st century?
Not the original performers, obviously. (Sadly, even Rolling Stones are mortal.) But their music.
Will audiences still revere the sounds of the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and other pop deities who once dominated something called radio and sold lots of plastic discs called records?
Or will these icons ultimately prove as disposable as the technologies they rode to fame?
What rock and roll apparitions will waft onto stages, or beam directly into our neural chipsets via the 2071 version of holograms — now responsible for ghostly (some might say ghastly) “performances” by Roy Orbison and other long-gone hit-makers?
Will 20th century legends keep growing…or fade away, as new legends stake their claims? (See Rolling Stone’s updated 500 Greatest Songs list.)
What formula makes people come back for more, decade after decade? Or spawns cottage industries, such as Rain?
‘AND SO I QUIT THE POLICE DEPARTMENT…’
Remarkably, this enterprise has topped the Fab Four in a few categories.
It’s outlasted them, as a touring band, by decades. Rain has performed Beatles songs the Beatles never played live. (Tunes from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road were particularly impressive on Tuesday.)
Clocking in at nearly two hours, Rain concerts are about four times longer than the ones John, Paul, George and Ringo gave at Shea Stadium. (Anyone remember Shea Stadium?)
And Rain has starred on Broadway.
Nostalgia can be a steady gig. Steve Landes has been touring as John Lennon since 1998.
It’s also a gig handed down for generations. Paul Curatolo (named for Beatle Paul McCartney, whom he portrays on stage) learned the craft from his dad, Brooklyn-born Joey Curatolo, who has played Sir Paul in Rain since 1978.
Although naturally right-handed (that’s how he strummed Yesterday), the junior Curatolo, a onetime Guitar Center employee, taught himself to play bass upside-down, imitating the left-handed McCartney.
Rounding out Tuesday’s ensemble: Alastair McNeil, a native of Hawaii, did George Harrison proud on lead guitar and Aaron Chiazza added plenty of punch as Ringo. Mark Beyer was the Fifth Rainmaker, subbing for George Martin, Billy Preston and assorted orchestras on keyboard.
Highlights included slick harmonies on If I Fell and Because; The Word, a seldom-heard gem from Rubber Soul; and clever videos and backdrops that gave historical context to the songs and costumes.
Vintage black-and-white TV commercials had the masked, vaccinated crowd roaring with laughter. Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble puffing Winstons, while Wilma and Betty mow the lawn?
The Beatles’ music endures. But the Swinging Sixties really were the Stone Age.
