The Beatles' spectacular but short-lived reign at the top of the music world meant that a lot of fans never actually got to see the Fab Four live.

But Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles could easily be the next best thing.

The tour, coming to the Fox Theatre for three shows Friday through Saturday, is a faithful re-creation of classic Beatles in concert, complete with wigs, costumes, video, multimedia sets and, of course, music such as "Come Together," "Hey Jude," "Let It Be" and "A Hard Day's Night."

"For two hours and 15 minutes, we'll take you away to a different world," says Rain founder and manager Mark Lewis.

Enthusiastic and emotional are two words Lewis uses in describing feelings the show elicits.

"It really takes people back," he says. "They're blown away from the quality and musicianship of the singers, who play this note-for-note. They even do songs the Beatles never did (live), and use full instrumentation. They play it all live."

Lewis was the original keyboardist for Rain, but now all his work is behind the scenes.

"Now that I'm not on stage, now that I'm in the audience, I'm watching the audience more than the band, and they really get emotional," he says. "It's really quite the experience."

Some may find a show such as Rain near sacrilegious, as in: How dare one try to replicate the Beatles? Lewis says there was a lot of that in the beginning.

Then, he points out, "they see the show."

"People often come in with the attitude, 'Who the hell do they think they are?' When they see the amount of work and passion for the music, they're thankful."

The reason many Beatles fans are thankful, Lewis says, is that the Beatles stopped touring. Their final public performance was in San Francisco in August 1966; the band broke up officially in 1970.

"They decided to go into the studio and never toured again," he says. "So they left this void."

It's a void Rain has had no trouble filling. After all, Lewis says, "it's music that's such a part of peoples' lives for a lot of people. There are messages in the music, and people played those albums for decades, and turned their children onto it."

And, he says, the show probably brings more satisfaction to Beatles fans than seeing Paul McCartney in concert in a stadium through a pair of binoculars.

Lewis says Rain was something that came about by chance back in the mid-'70s. The original musicians in the group played a mixture of Top 40 and original music, with Beatles tunes mixed in.

The response from the Beatles material grew to the point where they were able to perform a separate Beatles set. That branched off into a whole Beatles show, which got its start at a club in California's San Fernando Valley.

"We went into the gig inviting all our friends, hoping for 50 people," Lewis says. "And it was packed. A little light bulb went off. There was something to this. We got booked into more and more venues, got more costumes and got more of a presentation."

The band was initially named Reign, before evolving into Rain, the name of a Beatles song.

So why Reign to begin with?

"Put five guys in a room and try to come up with a name," Lewis jokes.

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Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles

When 8 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday • Where Fox Theatre, 527 North Grand Boulevard • How much $27.50-$57.50 • More info MetroTix