Overall Impression Although over the years, Cirque du Soleil shows have amazed and delighted us many times and I enjoy The Beatles music now and again, I was skeptical about Love. It turns out the 90 minute show was our favorite musical by a fair margin of three shows we saw in Las Vegas that trip. As usual, the set up was everything we might have expected including a 360 degree theatre with video projections and surround sound, including 6,500 speakers throughout the 2,013-seat theatre (three per seat).
Born of the mutual admiration of Cirque founder Guy Laliberte and the late band member George Harrison, the show marked the first time Apple Corps Ltd. collaborated with Cirque du Soleil. To date two million people have seen the show and the theatre looked sold out the night we attended.
Perhaps it was the Cirque experience organizing musical performances combined with the knowledge and understanding of the original Beatles music brought by George Martin, who produced the music back in the day, and his son. Ultimately, what matters is the result and that was a success. It was a lively, fun, colorful, uplifting and entertaining performance.
Cast In addition to the behind-the-scenes musical and creative executive and administrative staff that made the show a reality, more than sixty performers, one third dancers, one third acrobats and one third character actors, from 17 countries made the show come alive. They ranged between the ages of nine and 74.
Directed Dominic Champagne, (Sir) George Martin and Giles Martin
Established Love was established June 2006.
Handicapped Access Yes, there were elevators and special seating.
Location At the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas
Owned And Managed Cirque du Soleil in collaboration with Apple Corps Ltd. and The Mirage. Dubai World, a diversified holding company owned by the government of Dubai, owns 20 percent of Cirque du Soleil.
Prices Tickets costs $99, $125 and $150
Description During the show, we saw character interpretations for the inhabitants of The Beatles famous songs such as the Kids of Liverpool, Father McKenzie, Eleanor Rigby, The Walrus, Krishna, Nowhere Men, The Fool, Mr. Piggy, the Sailor, Sgt Pepper, Sugar Plum Fairy, Lady Madonna, Julia, Groupies, Her Majesty, Teddy Boys, the Nurse, Lucy, the Fireman, and Doctor Robert. We heard many of the band’s songs such as Get Back, Class Onion, Eleanor Rigby, I am the Walrus, Rock and Roll Run, Something, Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite, Help!, Blackbird, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Within You Without You Tomorrow Never Knows, Octupus’s Garden, Lady Madonna, Come Together, Here Comes the Sun, Revolution, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, A Day in the Life, Hey Jude, Sgt Peppers Reprise, and All You Need is Love. From our seats L1 and L2 in Section 209 we had an excellent view of the stage.
Souvenir Shop Just outside the entrance there was a Cirque du Soleil shop with branded and colorful tops in sleeveless, short and long sleeve styles, circus theme figurines, masks, Cirque du Soleil CDs and DVDs. There was an All Together Now DVD documenting the making of the Love production and including interviews with Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, Ringo Starr and Olivia Harrison ($30); copies of the Grammy Award Winning Love Soundtrack ($20); a Beatles juke-box ($9,000); and a Beatles rug ($380).
Other Cirque du Soleil was established by Guy Laliberte in a small Canadian town near Quebec in the early 1980s. Born of a theater group founded by Gilles Ste-Croix, it has grown from 73 workers in 1984 to a series of performances viewed by more than 70 million people across five continents to date.
The soundtrack to Love won two Grammy Awards for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or other Visual Medium and Best Surround Sound Album at the 50 Annual Grammy Awards 2008.
Camera and cell phone use were prohibited.
Date Of Most Recent Performance Attended September 2008
Reviewers Article by Elena del Valle
Photographs by Gary Cox
Would You Attend This Show Again? Yes
