In this day when cover bands are a dime a dozen and many, quite frankly, are not worth a dime to see, MSC OPAS this week brings to town what may be the epitome of make-believe superstars.

To say The Beatles are coming to Texas A&M would border on rock and roll blasphemy, but Rain is indeed as exact a duplication of the Fab Four as any audience has ever discovered.

Rain: A Tribute to The Beatles will begin at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday at Rudder Auditorium, the second main stage show of OPAS' 2009-10 season.

Considering that The Beatles only made three concert tours of the U.S. -- with the last show in San Francisco more than 43 years ago -- and only twice performed in Texas, it's safe to assume that few among us can say they ever saw John, Paul, George and Ringo together in the flesh.

The closest the group ever got to Aggieland was Aug. 19, 1965, when the guys played the now demolished Sam Houston Coliseum on Bagby Street near downtown Houston.

And, in fact, much of what the OPAS audience will see this week at Rudder is a re-creation of events that never happened at all. You see, many of The Beatles' most popular albums -- including Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles (The White album), Magical Mystery Tour and Abbey Road -- were released after their final concert, in 1966, but before the 1970 break-up.

It's hard to fathom that such Lennon/McCartney creations as Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds; With a Little Help From My Friends; I Am The Walrus; Strawberry Fields; Penny Lane; The Fool on the Hill; Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da; Here Comes the Sun and Come Together were never sung in concerts, only recording studios.

So, you could say that Rain gives us more than The Beatles did.

Since the mid 1980s, Joey Curatolo (Paul McCartney), Joe Bithorn (George Harrison), Ralph Castelli (Ringo Starr) and percussionist Mark Lewis have been Rain. Steve Landes (John Lennon) joined the group in 1998, and all five bring experience to their roles, having all performed with Broadway or touring productions of Beatlemania that ran more than a thousand shows in New York until 1979, then toured.

Rather than moving on to new genres, these five knew the public's thirst for The Beatles and their music would be passed from one generation to the next, and now yet to another.

Being a teenager of the '60s (I was 15 when my family watched Ed Sullivan first bring them to American TV in February of 1964), I was certainly influenced by the sound and lyrics from the mop-tops from Liverpool. The Beatles, with their unconventional aura, unique sound and pretty bad movies, would later provide a much-needed respite from the daily dose of tragic Vietnam War news.

A few weeks ago, local PBS affiliate KAMU-TV used one of its pledge nights to feature one of the two parts that Rain will present on stage at Rudder this week. I began to watch with a skeptical eye, prepared for yet another mediocre copy-cat band.

But keeping in mind that Anne Black and OPAS don't deal in mediocrity, I kept watching, and watched some more, through every pledge break until, sadly, it was over. I've been eager for this week ever since.

While the four were sufficiently made up to resemble their respective counterparts, and the costumes were eye-opening, it was the sound that Rain nails dead-on, exact, perfect -- each note, each verse, each word echoed precisely as did all those vinyl albums of four decades ago.

I closed my eyes to listen and there I was, taken back behind the wheel of my 1969 Mercury Cougar, 8-track jammed in the player and singing along loudly to Maxwell's Silver Hammer.

Rain: A Tribute to The Beatles will indeed take the audience through the brief six years in which the group changed seamlessly but dramatically their music, lyrics and appearance -- from the Sullivan stage, to the concert era to the studio album sessions to the break-up. Every note you'll hear will be live, nothing pre-recorded.

In closing, allow me to establish just one house rule for Rudder this Wednesday and Thursday nights: I promise that you will not be the only one there who knows all the songs by heart. Most all of us will -- even the marginal Beatles fans, even the Aggie students. So please lip sync, tap your foot, slap your knee or sway left and right all you want. But you're not riding shotgun with me in the Cougar so keep your actual sing-along to a whisper or, better yet, none at all. Everyone around you, even the person you come with, will be appreciative.

That said, call 845-1234 or go to www.mscopas.org to check ticket availability. To learn more about the band, visit the Web site, at www.raintribute.com.

I'm counting on this OPAS offering to be one of those "Wow!" nights. Buy a ticket or two and thank me later.

End of 'Leading Ladies'

Today's 2 p.m. performance is the finale for Navasota Theatre Alliance's production of Leading Ladies.

Described on the theatre Web site as the story of two English Shakespearean actors, Jack and Leo, who are so "down on their luck that they are performing 'Scenes from Shakespeare' on the Moose Lodge circuit in the Amish country of Pennsylvania. When they hear an old lady in York, Penn., is about to die and leave her fortune to her two long lost English nephews, they resolve to pass themselves off as the missing heirs and get the cash."

Just one obstacle to the scheme: When they arrive, they find out that the relatives aren't nephews, but nieces.

Call 936-825-3195 for information or go online to http://navasotatheatre.com.

Save the date

* Wednesday: Brazos Valley Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators monthly Schmooze, (scbwi-brazosvalley.org)

* Friday: The Theatre Co. presents its Monster Bash fundraiser, Miramont Country Club in Bryan (theatrecompany.com)

* Nov. 2-30: Arts Council of Brazos Valley presents Holiday Artisan Bazaar, Texas Gallery in College Station (696-2787, acbv.org)

* Nov. 6: OPAS Jr. presents Jeff Corwin -- Tales From the Field, Rudder Auditorium (mscopas.org, 845-1234)

* Nov. 6-8: International Festival-Institute at Round Top presents its 12th Annual Theatre Forum, Tararaboomdere (979-249-3129, http://festivalhill.org)

* Nov. 8: Brazos Valley Chorale presents Verdi's Requiem, Rudder Auditorium (776-1776, bvchorale.org)

* All month: Children's Museum of the Brazos Valley offers various programs, including Monday Madness, from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (779-5437, www.mymuseum.com)

* Tom Turbiville is The Eagle's arts columnist. He's also sports director for WTAW-1620AM Radio. E-mail him at tom.turbiville@theeagle.com.