Beatle fever will take over State College at 5 p.m. Tuesday when the "Cast" of Beatlemania performs as part of the Summer Concert Series in Central Parklet, located on the 200 block of South Fraser Street.
Beatlemania is a traveling group of four entertainers who recreate the time period when the Beatles ruled rock 'n' roll, thereby making a huge sociological impact on society.
The four "impersonators" time travel with its audience from 1964 to 1970, not only playing tunes from each era of the Beatles' career, but also making two to three costume changes a show, bassist Lenie Colacino said.
"I'm the Paul [McCartney] guy," Colacino said. Though he usually plays bass, Colacino said he also plays piano and guitar for the group.
Each member assumes a different Beatles personality. Carlo Cantamessa, performing on rhythm guitar, bass, piano and lead vocals plays John Lennon. Lead guitarist and vocalist Jim Filgate plays George Harrison and drummer John Delgado plays Ringo Starr.
Colacino said this particular group has been together for about eight years, but he has been a member of the mop top cast since 1978.
"It's been a long journey," he said.
Colacino went on to explain he was with the cast when the show was on Broadway for two years, and then traveled for about six or seven years with different tour groups performing up to eight shows a month. He said that he now enjoys doing Beatlemania on a part-time level.
Cantamessa has also been with the group since 1978.
"The music is phenomenal, I'm a musician and I get to play and we have the chance to act, look and sound like one of the greatest rock groups ever," Cantamessa said.
Cantamessa added that he loves being a part of the "Cast" because of all the different people he meets and the different places he gets to go while touring.
The group has toured all over the United States and in many other countries, including Canada, England, Mexico, Brazil and Japan.
Colacino said the group is used to performing in front of a variety of different audiences, some as large as 40,000 or sometimes in venues as small as 100 people.
He said that the songs the cast plays are often dependent on the crowd.
"If it's a more diverse crowd who seems like they'd want to hear more of the lesser-known tunes, we'll play them. If it's a very large venue we usually just stick to the hits," Colacino said.
To experience a taste of what it would be like to see the Beatles perform live, check out the "Cast" of Beatlemania performing from 5:30 p.m. to dusk on Tuesday in Central Parklet.
