Everyone is familiar with The Beatles.
Lovers of the legendary rock group from Liverpool, UK will get a chance to hear their favorite songs and jam out to the music as Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles will take place April 24 at the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center.
The concert will allow fans to experience the iconic band and celebrate the best of Abbey Road.
Rain will bring the greatest hits of the epic recording to life in addition to all the early Beatles favorites.
The performance will take the audience back in time with the legendary foursome delivering a note-for-note theatrical event and to experience the worlds’ most iconic band.
“They will be performing songs from Abbey Road as well as the rooftop concerts so the last concerts that the Beatles performed as a foursome,” Wagner Noël Marketing Director Ginny Van Doren said. “You’ll get to see the progression of the Beatles and one thing that is unique is that our performers are Broadway actors so if you were to be in New York, this would be the same caliber of music that you’re seeing on tour at our stage. You don’t have to go to New York to see Broadway. You can just look in your backyard here at Wagner Noël.”
The event, which is part of Broadway in the Basin, has been rescheduled numerous times at the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center.
It was originally supposed to take place in 2020 before COVID forced a postponement to 2021. Last year, COVID once again played a part as the show was rescheduled to April of 2022.
This time, all systems are a go.
“This is a sign of good things to come,” Van Doren said. “By being able to host our broadway national tours, that means that things are getting a lot safer for large companies to be out on the road. It’s a nice feeling to be able to welcome them here to West Texas after being on the schedule since August of 2019. The show is a longtime coming.”
However, if you think this will be just a mere Beatles tribute concert, you will be greatly mistaken.
Van Doren said one of the main differences between this show and a typical tribute performance involves the elaborate set design.
“Typically with our Broadway shows, and this is Broadway specific, it does require a lot more crew and set up and because the set design and set changes are very elaborate and also they tell just as much of a story as the words that will come out of the mouth of the performers,” Van Doren said. “That’s going to be different than your typical tribute show because usually, a tribute show will be a band and maybe on costume but for our Broadway performance, you’re going to have a full set that takes you through the history and life of the Beatles at that time as well as costume changes and all the music that people know and love from the Beatles.”
Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles isn’t the only show that has been rescheduled at the Wagner Noël because of the pandemic.
The Broadway production of Waitress is scheduled for May 26 and will close out the 2021-22 Broadway in the Basin season.
“(Waitress) is a title that we’ve been working really hard to get because it is a newer title,” Van Doren said. “Typically, for our market, and our Broadway in the Basin season, we may not always get those newer titles because we are a one-night market so that is unique in the fact that we’re able to get Waitress shortly after it went off Broadway and started touring.”
Van Doren says this year’s Broadway in the Basin calendar featured a return to normal as it was the first season since the pandemic. However, this season still had a canceled performance due to the pandemic.
The show An Officer and a Gentleman, based on the movie from the 1980s, was supposed to take place last November, but was canceled due to cast members contracting COVID.
“It was just unsafe for them to be on the road,” Van Doren said.
This year’s season also featured STOMP back in December, which Van Doren said has been at the Wagner Noël twice now.
“We knew that would be a show for the holiday season,” Van Doren said of STOMP.
The Carole King Musical and Simon and Garfunkel took place in February and March, respectively.
“More or less, we’re excited to bring Broadway in the Basin to the Permian Basin and surrounding areas and we want people to look out for our announcement for our new season that we’ll be announcing in May 2022,” Van Doren said. “There will typically be a season where we do six shows so that’s the plan for the next season to be back in full force.”
If you go
- What: Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles.
- When: April 24.
- Where: Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center.
- Ticket prices: $57-$97.
