The lights dimmed as George, John, Paul and Ringo took the stage at the Nicholas Music Center Saturday for Beatlemania, a tribute to the band that has commonly been referred to as the greatest of all time.
Family and Community Services of Somerset County, a nonprofit agency, presented the annual spring benefit concert, held on Douglass campus.
In what is described as reliving the sites and sounds of the Beatle's era, Beatlemania rocked the concert Hall, and had almost everyone in the audience dancing by the end.
Michael Lourgchamp, who came out to see the show with friends, said seeing it was his way of supporting Family and Community Services of Somerset County's cause.
Others came out to relive the magic of the Beatles, such as Pat Burns who had the opportunity to see the actual Beatles play when she was a kid.
"If you close your eyes, you think it's them," she said, comparing the cast of Beatlemania to the actual band members.
Some in attendance, like Tom Mayoros, even said the Beatlemania performance was better than seeing the real band because of the developments in equipment and sound engineering, which allowed for the performers to better mimic the Beatle's studio recordings.
The audience made up mainly of adults and their families agreed Beatlemania accurately captured the excitement and thrill of seeing the Beatles throughout their musical careers, as the performers made three costume changes signifying transformations in music and era.
They first came out dressed in all black suits, signifying the Beatles' early career, then changed into the bright-colored flamboyant marching band outfits made famous on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band. They concluded their performance sporting beards and jeans representing the evolution into the hippie era of music.
Carlo Cantamessa, who has played John Lennon for Beatlemania for almost 30 years, commented the experience of the show as a whole.
"As we tell people all the time who say, 'Oh, I am not a big Beatles fan,' we say go see the show anyway because it's live rock 'n' roll and you get to see it in a format that takes you out of Beatle fandom - just the music and seeing how the look changes with the songs and the songs change with the era, [all] within two."
Eric Harris, the executive director of Family and Community Services of Somerset County, was pleased with the turnout for the event but wished he had the chance to advertise more toward the University community.
"Now that we know what we are doing, we can get a bigger crowd next year … and we are going to do a better job at promoting it to the students," he said.
Carlo Cantemessa of Beatlemania was pleased with the performance he and his band mates put on and commented on how playing a Beatle as a profession has affected his life.
"We've been doing this for so long … it's always a different audience, so we've got the best of all worlds," Cantemessa said. "We didn't write the music, but we get to tour."
According to the playbill, the mission of Family and Community Services is to promote and enhance the quality of life for those families and individuals living in Somerset County through counseling and community based programs. The concert was one way for the organization to, not only get their name out there, but to raise money in a fun and enjoyable way.
"One of our staff heard of [Beatlemania], and then she went to see them and loved them and we decided to have them," Harris said. "We made a great decision."
