Cirque du Soleil creates 'Love' affair with the Beatles
With four incredibly different shows already in Las Vegas, the versatile Cirque du Soleil has used as its muse the legendary Beatles as its muse to create a fifth production: The Beatles Love™.
Cirque du Soleil — in co-production with Apple Corps Ltd., the Beatles’ own recording company — captures the essence of love that John, Paul, George and Ringo inspired during their amazing adventure together. The Beatles' original producer, Sir George Martin, and his son Giles use the master tapes of the Beatles' orginal recordings at Abbey Road Studios to create a unique soundscape for Love™. The soundtrack to The Beatles Love™ won two Grammy Awards in 2008.
Born out of a personal friendship and mutual admiration between the late George Harrison and Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté, it was a long and winding road to fruition.
“It began back in 2000 in Montreal during a festival weekend," Laliberté explained about Love™, which opened in June 2006 at the Mirage Hotel & Casino. “Every year, I have a party in my backyard. I had met George (Harrison) a few times, and he came to my party that year. He was fighting cancer but he came at the beginning and was the last to leave — he paid me a visit in my magical garden.
"Later, I went to visit him at his mansion in London. We shared the dream of doing something together and he told me his dream of doing something with the Beatles again before they all died. Sadly, George passed away in the process of doing this show.”
The surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with John Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, and Harrison’s widow, Olivia, have partnered with Laliberte in Love™ every step of the way. The show is the closest thing to the Beatles’ legacy that exists and the first thing they had done together in 35 years.
“The show is such a great success and it encapsulates all the music we did together and the great times we had,” said Paul McCartney. “George and John (Lennon) were magnificent men, and we miss them.”
In structure, Love™ recalls that Summer of Love of 1968. A theater with 360-degree seating and state-of-the-art sound, lighting, projection, imagery bring to life a colorful collection of song characters in extravagant costumes and makeup. The 60-member Cirque du Soleil cast uses contemporary dancing and acrobatics to relive the odyssey of the 1960s — with a backdrop of the Beatles’ music, of course!
Dominic Champagne, who frequently directs for Cirque du Soleil, wrote the original concept for The Beatles Love™ and directs the show, which he calls a “Rock ‘n’ Roll poem,” a magical mystery tour into the heart and soul of the Beatles music through an exploration of the aesthetic, political and spiritual trends of the 1960s.
A 25 percent discount is available on selected dates. Tickets are available online or by calling (800) 963-9634 or (702) 693-7223, or at the Mirage's box office. Children younger than 5 are not permitted.
- by Bobbie Katz, Las Vegas Reporter for HelloMetro
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