Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles Reviews

Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended

"...In fairness, plenty of people around me had a good time — in some party-hearty, cabin-fever cases, a very, very good time — singing along with these perfectly decent and perfectly predictable treatments of Beatles songs. The show contains more than 30 of them. “This Boy,” “Hey Jude,” “Eleanor Rigby,” “Strawberry Fields” — all are picked and plucked. A video camera trained on the audience and set to black-and-white allows us all to feel like we're fans at Shea. Well, hardly. But people play along."

Chicago Sun Times - Not Recommended

"...During “Hey Jude,” the inevitable encore of “Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles” — the lifeless, pointless gang of Fab Four impostors that opened another weeklong engagement Tuesday night at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts/Oriental Theatre — Fake Paul filed through the requisite crowd-directing gimmicks during the song’s endless nah-nah-nahs. “Right side!” “Left side!” “Only the men!” “Now the women!” If you hadn’t nah-nah-nodded off by then, you’re made of hardy Midwestern stock."

Chicago Stage Review - Somewhat Recommended

"...this is a fun trip-down-memory-lane concert show. The best aspect of RAIN: A Tribute to The Beatles is the ability it provides to immerse yourself in this truly fantastic music on a grand scale. If you’re a fan of The Beatles then you should have a particularly great time and for the fanatics, the Paul in this production is even playing a left-handed bass."

ChicagoCritic - Not Recommended

"...If you are a graybeard with an insatiable need for a nostalgia trip, if your head will explode without reminiscing about how good Yip Pips were and your knees get all wobbly every time you think of PVC culottes, then this show may be for you. If you want to hear exciting music that reaps what the Beatles have sown, go see Arctic Monkeys next time they’re in town, or pick up the Vaccines’ debut in March."

Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended

"...Relive the past with Broadway in Chicago's “Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles”, an excellent musical review featuring some of the Beatles biggest songs of the 1960s.  You'll be treated to such favorites as “Strawberry Fields Forever”, Paul McCartney's “Yesterday”, “Help”, “Twist and Shout”, and many other Beatles hits.  It's interesting to see how one band's music can still influence generations 50 years later, with music as powerful as the Beatles, what else would you expect?"

Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended

"...This is a return engagement but works much better in the Oriental theatre- on each side of the stage there is a screen as well as another behind the four men ( in actuality five as there is a keyboard man) who bring these memories alive as they become the visions of our history and that of the men they portray. The sounds they make are fab! The lighting effects amazing! And the video that tells their history and allows us to see what they caused when they brought their sound to the United States are stunning, bringing back the news and the signs of the times."

Chicago Theater Beat - Recommended

"...Providing context and much non-negotiable nostalgia, projections, vintage commercials, psychedelic animation, costume changes, and closed-circuit coverage (which combine the actual audience with clips from the Beatles 1965 concert at Shea Stadium) bring the 60s to life along with the music that stamped our memories."