When The Cast of Beatlemania plays the Jewish Community Center on Dec. 4, they will be returning to a city they know very well, since the band in its current line up was a regular attraction at the Hi Hat Club a few blocks away for many years.
Carlo Cantamessa, who plays the character of John Lennon in this Beatles tribute band, said his group appeared at the Hi Hat about every six months for years, and this return to Bayonne is like coming home.
“We try to get as close to the record on each and every song.” – Carlo Cantamessa
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Same line up since 2001
The Cast of Beatlemania is one of the best known and longest running Beatles tribute bands in the world. The group features Lenie Colacino, who plays Paul McCartney, a former cast member of the 1977 Broadway musical Beatlemania. The group plays throughout the United States, as well as in England, Canada, South America, and Japan. Along with Colacino, the band includes Cantamessa as John Lennon, Jim Filgate as George Harrison, John Delgado as Ringo Starr, and Mark Templeton, who does keyboards and serves as musical director and arranger.
Although the musicians that play John and Paul have been working together since 1988, the current line up came together in 2001, Cantamessa said.
A typical show runs around two hours.
“This is very family-oriented,” he said, “We are all very big Beatles fans and we try to put on a show that would impress us if we went. It’s hard to capture. We have never nailed the songs 100 percent, but we’re always working it.”
Stunned by seeing The Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, Cantamessa said he played a lot of other cover tunes from bands like Led Zeppelin and The Doors, but always came back to The Beatles.
“When I played The Beatles, people kept telling me how much I sounded like The Beatles, and asked for us to do more,” he said. “The songs came naturally to me. I have a similar range as John, and the other guys also fit naturally in their roles.”
A new venue, but same solid show
In some ways, the JCC has filled the vacuum left by the close of the Hi Hat, providing a venue for musical performances Bayonne might not otherwise see.
“We’re bringing to this performance pretty much the same act we played at the Hi Hat when we were there last,” Cantamessa said. “We start out with the mop top look of the early Beatles, do music from their early albums and movies, and then take a break and come back with a costume change for the Sergeant Pepper’s album, and end up with the look they had for Let It Be.”
The Beatles’ tribute consists of two sets and three costume changes, and follows the Beatles’ seven-year career – from mop tops through their hirsute and ragged look at their breakup. In their Hi Hat performances, the band treated audiences to songs from “A Hard Day’s Night” to “Let it Be.”
The band, of course, is riding on a wave of Beatles popularity thanks to the Broadway hit Rain, which offers a similar trip through time in an effort to evoke a sense of nostalgia for what is arguably one of the best musical acts in the 20th century.
Unlike Rain, The Cast’s performances are not scripted.
“With Rain, everything is the same every time you go to see it,” Cantamessa said. “The jokes are always in the same place, the songs are always in the same order. This is not true with us. We might want to play a different song here or there, or if someone calls out from the audience, we might play a song they call for us to do.”
Interaction with the audience is a huge part of The Cast’s performances – usually involving music and humor, which was typical of a Beatles performance.
“Our goal, if you can call it that, is to give everyone [even us] the feeling of seeing The Beatles live while experiencing the music like you remember it from the records,” Cantamessa said. “We try to get as close to the record on each and every song.”
The show, called “From Abbey Road to 1050 Kennedy Blvd.,” will be put on at the JCC on Dec. 4 at 7:30 p.m., and will feature a hot and cold buffet, beer, wine, soda, desserts, coffee, and tea, all included at $65 per person. For tickets, call (201) 436-6900.