“Love” blasts off with a new
spring in its step just like the makeover Merseyside city they put on
the global map. The acrobatic dancers even have springs embedded in the
new spongy floor to propel them faster and higher as they belt into a
raucous “Twist and Shout.”
There’s a new, vibrant look and exciting feel to the show that celebrates its 10th anniversary in July.
The changes, began with a decision two years ago to transform The Beatles show top to bottom.
Last
Thursday, after a two-week shutdown and months of daily rehearsals
while the show was running by night, the cast presented its new look to
the public for the first time.
Seventy percent
of the show is different — and marvelous and magnificent. The remaining
30 percent will be updated and integrated between now and when Paul
McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison arrive in July for
the 10th anniversary.
The show feels as if it’s catapulted at
high speed into its second decade of Strip success. Each of the 2,013
seats has had its three old speakers replaced with two more modern,
smaller ones that give it a bolder, bigger and brasher sound.
Giles and his father Gerorge remixed 80 minutes of The
Beatles music for the original Cirque show in 2006.
Since then,
Giles has backed up the Beatles catalog and last year remixed their No. 1
hits digitally. He was perfect to replace all the audio in “Love.” The
Beatles’ legacy of genius in their music and lyrics is intact forever.
He now describes it as “glorious sounds.”
The Beatles
provided new, previously never seen video from their vaults at Apple
Music to director Dominic Champagne, who has miraculously created
animated, interactive holograms of The Beatles in black-and-white
silhouette.
Enjoy the experience as an open-mouthed, gee-whiz
moment, the aerial ballet that featured four girls and one guy
“flying” and “swooping” to “Something in the Way She Moves.”The
couple on the trapeze for Paul’s “Yesterday” video are magically
interlocked. The ballet for “Here Comes the Sun” is an emotional
spine-tingler.The high-above staging of “The Octopus Garden” is
adorable, and sparklers descending from the ceiling of “Lucy in the Sky
With Diamonds” seem as large as Caesars Palace headliner Mariah Carey’s
engagement ring.
One minute, the show can go from eye-popping
psychedelic colors to the purity of a white chiffon tent draped over the
entire the audience. The dancing seems to have picked up a harder and
faster beat.
The dancer on roller skates moving and grooving to
“Help” has to be seen to be believed. The trampoline skater performers
for “Revolution” seem to speed faster, jump higher and somersault
farther.
All of the added effects and action plays out on the
computerized floor, which becomes a giant screen for 24 projectors — so
lifelike at one point it looks as if it’s a glistening lake.
Not
only does it change colors, but the sections of colored squares also go
“splat” into various shapes with the tap-dancing and jumping dancers as
they land. It’s modern showbiz technology at its finest — an
interactive gym floor.
The show, with its cast of 65
international performers, ends on a high point of the marching Sgt.
Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club band in new, vivid and colorful uniforms and
performers walking on stilts sculpted from their musical instruments.
It’s whimsical fun and very effective visually.
There’s so much going on, one has to return at least five
times to capture it all. It’s a wondrous and emotional experience that
lasts for days.
“The Beatles Love” plays at the Mirage twice nightly — at 7 and 9:30 — Thursdays through Mondays, dark Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
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