He has more than passed the audition

John Lennon concluded the Beatles rooftop performance of “Get Back” in January 1969 saying, “I’d like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we’ve passed the audition.”

For 30 years, Cedarhurst native Joe Bithorn passed the audition first as a part of the Beatlemania road show and currently as part of the Fab Four playing George Harrison in “Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles,” on Broadway.

Bithorn, who gained local fame as part of the Bithorn Brothers Band — he along with his older brother Chuck — performed Allman Brothers music and are remembered for their concerts at Lawrence High School and the Woodmere (now Lawrence Woodmere) Academy.

“My feet haven’t touched the ground, I am amazed and astounded that I am performing on Broadway,” said Bithorn, 55, who originally lived in Manhattan and Rosedale, Queens before his parents moved the family to the Five Towns in 1966.

And it was his parents — Charles and Marie — now retired in Tampa, who helped develop Bithorn’s affinity for music, along with Chuck, sister Susan and younger brother Edward.

From meeting violinist Isaac Stern and opera singer Beverly Sills through his mother’s job and dining with many others at the Russian Tea Room to living up on 64th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan and seeing jazz greats Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane, Bithorn’s early life was enveloped in music.

“I was always amazed by music in general,” said Bithorn, who noted his parents influences and then seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, a seminal moment in musical history.

“To see them on Ed Sullivan, a little light bulb goes on in your head,” Bithorn said. “To end up doing what we are doing: performing modern day classical music.”

Bithorn also credits Anthony Polara, who was his music teacher at Lawrence Junior High School (now the middle school), to pushing him beyond the limits of course work that allowed Bithorn to work as a studio musician at 16.

“I wanted to work in music,” Bithorn said, “and my mother said the difference between an amateur and a professional is that a professional gets paid.”

After a few years of scuffling around, Bithorn auditioned for Beatlemania in 1980 and settled in for a “Ticket to Ride.” A ride that has not ended and even has brought old friends out to see Bithorn and Steve Landes as Lennon, Joey Curatlo as Paul McCartney and Ralph Castelli as Ringo Starr.

Maureen Carroll, who saw the show and went out with Bithorn for two and half years back in the day, remembers the meticulous way he learned a song.

“If a guitar string bent a certain way he would figure out the exact sound,” said Carroll, who thinks the show has been taken to a “new level.”

Former garage band roadie Lou Mairello also took in the show and met up with Bithorn. Also friendly with Chuck, Mairello drove the band to their gigs and it was his public address system and lights that they used.

“His older brother Chuck and I met in high school and were best friends for many years,” Mairello said. “Joe used to hang out with us all the time.”

Much hard work and time has gone into making this production what Bithorn called more “like a concert” than a Broadway show.

“Rain” is now slated to close at the Neil Simon Theatre on Jan. 15, then re-open at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on Feb. 8.

Bithorn thinks the show could go on a long time. “As long as I can keep my feet on that stage,” said Bithorn. “The music, that is the power of the thing.”