I Heart Beatles

Usually the best seats in the show are the ones in the very front. I mean, you get to see the performers up close and personal, you don't miss a single detail and the losers in the nosebleed seats wish they could afford to pay top moolah to be in their spot, right? Well, in the case of Cirque Du Soleil's tribute to the Beatles Love playing at the Mirage in Las Vegas is quite the opposite. Dean and I got the mezzanine seats which were possibly the furthest to the main stage but we were grateful that we did since the most astonishing view of the show could only be appreciated from this bird's eyeview spot and I could not have traded my seat with anyone in the front rows.
There's more than one reason why say that but I shall not spoil the secrets from these amazing show playing in the heart of the Vegas strip but I'm thrilled to report that this show is going to be stuck inside our heads (I mean Dean's and mine) for a very long time and whether you are a Beatles die-hard fan (like me) or you just appreciate good music (Dean was that person) you just can't go wrong with this show, it's an experience that you must experience at least once.
The show feature actual Beatles songs which is quite a relief since I thought they were going to be performing the songs live but it's the actual Beatles recordings that you hear coming from every single speaker strategically placed along every person's headrest so that noone is unable to hear with unparalleled quality the new mix of songs which is just another definite CD I shall have to add to my Beatles collection as soon as I log this entry tonight (OK Dean, so I might be a little bit obsessed about Beatles, I know, but you well know where I'm coming from, right?)
As a matter of fact this new Beatles recording is so well mixed that it's so hard to decipher when one song ends and the other begins but it sure sounds like music to my ears having all these different songs blend together in harmony.
However, not all has to be about the music which I'm inclined to love anyhow as an already true Beatles fan but the real test came in how they interpreted the songs into the program. I'll admit that I was a bit skeptical and I had lowered my expectations thinking that I would probably be disappointed. Earlier Dean and I went to the Mirage entrance of the show to marvel at the amount of merchandise tie-ins and the amount of focus the hotel had created around the show: the banner right below the hotel name, the advertising all over the strip, they even named a bar inside The Mirage after a Beatles song: Revolution. All of this hype: was it worth it? The answer is: All You Need Is Love, brother!! as John Lennon might have said.
The most memorable numbers were Come Together, Something, Within You Without You (which I will speak a bit further about in a moment), A Day In The Life and even Ringo's Octopus' Garden which I had made fun of for the longest time even made it into the show. The opening with Because set a tone of mystery and uncertainty towards the expecting audience (I was a little afraid that the show was gonna be covered in these giant 4 curtains that divided the stage, the visibility was very dim and limited to the nearest performers for the opening number but as soon as Get Back exploded into bright lights of multicolor and confetti filled the air you could just sense that the audience wanted to just get up their seats and dance along.
These giant curtains had a silhouette of one Beatle: John, Paul, George and last but not least Ringo appeared on each curtain as big as the whole stage. Very often the curtain would also come down and display different things like a sensual woman dancing to Something while the performers came down in acrobatic fashion to the main stage, or birds flew about as we heard Paul McCartney singing Blackbird, etcetera.
But the most impressive number was definitely Within You Without You from Sgt. Peppers when out of a floating bed came these white sheets which performers started pulling and pulling and pulling until it covered pretty much the whole audience below and in the sea that the giant sheet seemed to represent appeared (have you guessed it yet?) a Yellow Submarine which floated above the audience. It was possibly the most innovative and certainly unusual prop to use but for the mezzanine seats that we had it was the most astonishing view we could ever dreamed of and for once I wasn't sorry we got the cheap seats since it was possibly the best spot in the theatre.
Among all the excitement, the acrobats, the rollerskating, I was still busy dissecting the weak storyline behind each number, trying to make sense of it all, seeing if there was any logical sequence to the numbers, whether or not there was a message that I could get from the whole experience. It wasn't until the last numbers were performed with Hey Jude and lastly, when the curtains came down for the grand finale, and I saw the Fab Four in their real form, no longer silhouettes; it was then that my eyes filled with tears, tears of joy, tears of sadness, tears of excitement, tears of closure. I felt that I had gotten more than I had bargained for which was a real sense of love which transcended performances, lights or even music. It was a collective energy of love, and understanding, and unison that I had never experienced before. I was literally in shock when the show ended, with those images implanted in my head and now I need to share this love with you all. If you listen to All You Need Is Love with open ears and an open heart it's hard not to feel the love emanating from every corner, every being, every creature that you come in contact. It's like an eye opening experience that every person deserves to see and feel for themselves.
One of the best shows in the strip and out. A true gem.