While in Vegas we checked out the Cirque du Soleil show Love featuring Beatles music. It’s really fantastic, although I would say it’s much more Beatles than Cirque du Soleil. Overall, the Cirque’s extraordinary acrobatics play second fiddle to the high-quality music, and I was impressed by the respect paid to the Fab Four legacy. If you’re a Beatles fan and love their music, the result is a must-see.

For inspiration, it looks like everyone, from the performers to the set designers, revisited the sixties source material and took it seriously. The potential cheese factor (think the Sgt. Pepper movie with the Bee Gees) is in thankfully short supply. Some characters are taken directly from the Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour album sleeves and inserts. It’s nice to see Cirque du Soleil demonstrating the same artistic perfection and attention to detail that the Beatles themselves strove for.

The overall effect comes close to sensory overload. Activity happens in all corners of the stage constantly, to dizzying effect. The multi-layered, “mash up” music demonstrates this same aesthetic, and sound comes from all corners, due to a powerful sound system including speakers in every seat. There is literally not a bad place to sit in the entire theater.

More about the “mash up” music: The combining of various Beatles songs makes more sense in this theatrical setting than on the CD. Because the Beatles’ music is so familiar, I think the intent was to have people unsure as to exactly what song was coming next. Therefore, what sounds like Blackbird ends up being Yesterday, or what might be Tomorrow Never Knows actually becomes Within You Without You. I’m still not completely sold on the “mash up” idea, but dramatically it makes more sense.

There are some truly inspired visual themes running through the show, a VW Beetle, British school children, Sgt. Pepper, Eleanor Rigby, clusters of mangled musical instruments, flowers, and rain boots (with or without people). But the most powerful visual metaphor is the Beatles themselves, represented by the number four: four children, four white balloons, their top halves painted black to represent John, Paul, George, and Ringo. The numerical metaphor could be extended to the stage itself, with its four entry ways and curtains that divide it into quadrants. I think the ultimate realization is that many elements of the Beatles canon can be reduced to a visual iconography that comes to life in unexpected ways. The show doesn’t shy away from the Beatles dark side either, with some truly nightmarish symbolism to the songs that freaked us out as kids.

Probably my favorite song treatments were Within You Without You, with a truly amazing combination of a parachute and a subsonic sound, Yesterday, and A Day In The Life, each with a culmination of many the themes and threads running through the show into something simultaneously climactic and unresolved.

That said, there were a few minor misfires. I would have appreciated a few more characters directly inspired by the lyrics. More specifically, it seems like the circus-inspired Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite begs for an appearance of Henry the Horse dancing the waltz. Similarly, I’d have loved to have some visual metaphors for John Lennon’s most surreal lyrics in I Am The Walrus and Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. Just one or two semolina pilchards in marmalade skies, please.

Second, although an attempt was made to assign some sort of loose narrative thread through the whole thing (something about World War II, music rising from the ashes, and a few nods to the Beatles’ story with four silhouettes joking around, and the burning of Beatles albums leading to four burning blackbirds), I think this should have just been abandoned. There is no reason for adding continuity where none existed before - the relationship between Strawberry Fields Forever and I Want To Hold Your Hand in terms of narrative is practically nil and that’s what is so great about the Beatles; their musical range, and how they went from a pop group to experimental musicians in the span of a few years.

Lastly, although I think John Lennon would have enjoyed the show itself, I don’t know what the anti-establishment Beatle would have thought about the blatant advertising of the show all over Vegas on billboards, television, and blaring over speakers near the Treasure Island hot-girl show. There were even a few Beatles slot machines hanging out near the Love entrance, reminding me a bit of Rutles documentary: All You Need Is Cash.

Anyhow, to sum up, I really enjoyed this show. My only warning is that if you don’t like the Beatles or don’t like their music, you may not fully get or understand Love. But otherwise, for a different take on the Beatles music, it’s worth the time and effort to check it out.

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