With the longtime proliferation of Elvis impersonators out there, it is refreshing to see someone impersonating someone else. Four guys from New York City, all former members of the Broadway Beatlemania show, playing -- you're pretty smart if you've guessed it already -- John, Paul, George and Ringo. For those of you who couldn't afford tickets when you were 16, for those of you whose parents thought the Fab Four were merely vehicles for the evil ways of Satan and for those of you who think you were born in entirely the wrong decade, the Strawberry Fields show this weekend at the Roland E. Powell Convention Center in Ocean City will give you your chance.

You'll see the Beatles. Kinda.

Tony Garafalo, who morphs into John Lennon on stage, must have miraculous control of his very New York accent to become a man who dared to imagine from Liverpool, England. The current version or the group has been together for 10 years.

Its just a hunch, but don't you think getting into costume, character, lugging out the same brands and models of equipment the Beatles used and singing "Please, Please Me," "Twist and Shout," "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and the phrase, "beep, beep, beep, beep, yah!" over and over again, night after night, would become laborious?

Not so, said Garafalo, The group digs deep to wrest out these characters every night, and they get up there and play a consistent and convincing show.

I'm a guitar player and John was a guitar player, Our vocal range is the same," Garafalo said. "And as I became a teenager, I liked what he said musically and otherwise."

The band has done a lot of homework to best embody the Beatles. Thousands of hours of live videotape, reading books and listening to the albums over and over again have given these four an edge. Sometimes the group has had to play songs in slower time to better understand a guitar solo or a drum trick.

They try really hard, and past critics have lauded them for their efforts and for the realistic feel of the show. Push aside thoughts that this might be slightly creepy.

This group has played across the United States and Canada as well as 29 other countries, including Malaysia.

"We just played a show in Denver. They fly us all over the place," Garafalo said. "We've been to 29 countries, and we look, we smell and we sound like the Beatles."

It's the next best thing, and, frankly, it's the only way you're ever going to see the Beatles perform. Concert-goers are apt to request obscure songs the Beatles never performed, as well as post-White Album songs which the Beatles didn't perform either, because they stopped touring in 1966.

The persona goes beyond the stage for Garafalo.

"We live in New York, City. I've seen Yoko Ono on the street," he said. On what would have been Lennon's 60th birthday last week, Garafalo went to Central Park to sign autographs, in character.

Woe to the unsuspecting tourist who did not realize Lennon has been dead for nearly 20 years.

The show does not wear on the group, Garafalo said. They've got a good thing going on, and they're very much in demand. They will travel anywhere to play a show, including Rhode Island. They will play birthday parties, bar mitzvahs, wedding receptions -- you name it.

"It's enjoyable. It never gets old with-us," Garafalo said.

Will women scream and grasp large chunks of their hair, pulling at it in seeming ignorance of pain, overcome by passion and hormones?

"What they can expect is to re-live a show as if the Beatles were still alive. They're going to close their eyes and think they're hearing the Beatles," Garafalo guaranteed.

Oh -- one more reason to come to the show? You say you did get to a Beatles show? Garafalo thinks you may not have heard the music because of all the screaming going on. Come to this show and hear the music.

One more inquiry. What kinds of weighing responsibilities come with impersonating cultural icongraphy night after night? This wasn't, after all, just another rock band. This was a band that changed music, that was perhaps (There always seems to be an argument between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. We're not even going to mention Elvis here.) the greatest rock band ever.

"We do feel a heavy responsibility to keep the show consistent. If one of us isn't feeling well ..." Garafalo said. "We try to do the same show every time, with a lot of energy and a lot of fun."

George Harrison is played by Mark Vaccado, Paul McCartney is played by Don Linares and Ringo Starr is played by Michael Bellusci. The roles of Harrison's wife, Eric Clapton, the "fifth Beatle," Linda McCartney, that chick who photographed the Beatles a lot in the early days and several extra roles including screaming women, barbers experienced in the art of the angled bowl cut and a sitar teacher for George remain open.

No word on casting calls yet.

This concert benefits Atlantic General Hospital, and, in all seriousness, will be a good time for anyone with a love of the Beatles and a decent imagination.

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