Meet the Cast of Beatlemania

Carlo Cantamessa never saw the Beatles perform live in person. But when the lights come up on Beatlemania, the Connecticut father of five channels John Lennon.

Teamed with Lenie Colcaino, who plays Paul McCartney (and was, by the way, the first left-handed member of the original Broadway production of Beatlemania), Jim Filgate as George Harrison and John Delgado as drummer Ringo Starr, Cantamessa rounds out the traveling version of England’s Fab Four.

For over 30 years, Cantamessa has toured the globe with the production. On June 20, the Cast of Beatlemania teams with Satisfaction, a Rolling Stones tribute band, rekindling the British Invasion at the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center. The show starts at 6:30 p.m., and tickets are $24 for general admission or $36 for reserved seating.

The Beatlemania/Satisfaction show is being produced by Sunburst Media. KCIL-FM 107.5 General Manager Danny Fletcher, the morning voice on “Danny & The Divas,” said the tribute tour was originally slated to perform in Houma last September. Blame the delay on hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

After renegotiating the schedule, the touring Beatles and Stones gig is back on the calendar and excitement is definitely building, Fletcher said.

“Our phones keep ringing off the hook,” he said. “This is going to be a great night of legendary music.”

Beatlemania features two acts – from the band’s arrival on the music scene in 1964 to the final days at Abbey Road. The two acts include costume changes and an authentic stage setup – right down to the Ludwig drum kit and Vox amplifiers.

From the moment the four Brits with the mop-top haircuts sang before an audience of screaming girls on the “Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964, Cantamessa was captivated.

“I remember watching them on TV with my sister,” he recalls. “I still remember thinking that it was better than the job my dad’s got.

“Who knew 14 years later, I would be old enough to be doing this,” he added.

The “this” to which Cantamessa is referring is appearing in all 50 states and more than 20 countries entertaining audiences as John Lennon. After spending years in local Tri-State Beatle bands, he responded to an ad looking for sound-alikes a few years after the Broadway production of “Beatlemania” opened in 1977.

Shortly after the Broadway production opened, its producers realized that, to reach the masses, touring was critical.

By then, Cantamessa was on the fast track to become a lawyer, attending the then-University of Bridgeport. Pursuing music and getting to travel seemed more ideal than arguing case law. He tried out, hoping to get a part as Lennon or Harrison, noting “they’re very similar vocalists.”

Cantamessa was picked for that early touring show. Thirty years later, time away from his furniture packing business is spent on the road, fulfilling Beatles’ fans fantasies.

“Reaction around the work is amazing,” Cantamessa said. “Not only for Americans, but abroad as well. The Beatles’ music is a universal language.”

In Tokyo, for instance, he recalls performing before sold-out audiences in Roppongi, the city’s famed nightlife district. “They didn’t speak a bit of English but sang every song word for word,” Cantamessa said. “They knew them all, from ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ to ‘Let It Be.’ They were with us singing note for note.”

The whole scene was repeated in El Salvador, where a local Beatles group joined the cast onstage. “An interpreter helped translate what they were saying,” Cantamessa said. “They told us how much they enjoyed the show and how they wanted to emulate what we were doing. Talk about crossing cultural bounds.

“But that’s what this music does. It knows no cultural or generational boundaries,” he added. “All ages, races and creeds love the Beatles. I’ve never met someone who doesn’t like something from their catalogue. You would be hard-pressed to find someone who says they don’t like any of the Beatles’ music.”

As half of the legendary Lennon/McCartney songwriting duo and band manager, Cantamessa credits the touring group’s longevity with its drive for authenticity. They constantly refine the set, retool their singing and playing down to the single note and rely on the vintage equipment the Fab Four used to get the sound just right.

“We are of the mindset that we want to deliver the same show that we would want to go see,” he said. “Had the Beatles still been together, this is the show that we would have wanted to see them perform.”

The two-act show is packed nightly with more than 30 songs from the Beatles’ vast musical catalogue.

It opens in the early days with the moptopped band taking the stage in coats and ties. They banter through the top hits – “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “I Saw Her Standing There,” “Please Please Me” and into “Help,” “Yesterday” and “Nowhere Man.”

The second act launches into the Sgt. Pepper days, complete with attire. Concert-goers are treated to renditions of “Got to Get You Into My Life,” “Back In The USSR,” “Lady Madonna,” “Hey Jude” and “Revolution.”

The encore usually includes a mix of hits, featuring the band’s final number one hit, “Let It Be.”

“The time goes really fast because the songs are so great,” Cantamessa said. “It’s fantastic when everything is clicking on all cylinders. Those are the shows we tour for. We want to sound like the record, but deliver the feel of the Beatles’ life onstage.”

“We are lucky to have this gig and never lose sight of that fact,” he added. “We’re gifted that we are allowed to do this… to perform this music, to travel and to meet people who share a love for the songs the Beatles gave to the world. This has been a great ride and we’re looking forward to doing it as long as we’re able to still deliver.”

The Cast of Beatlemania – (from left) Carlo Cantamessa as John Lennon, John Delgado as Ringo Starr, Lenie Colcaino as Paul McCartney and Jim Filgate as George Harrison – invade Houma June 20, performing with Satisfaction, a Rolling Stones tribute band, at the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center. General admission tickets are $24 and reserved seating is $36. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster or weekdays at the civic center box office.