When I was in Las Vegas for Blog World, I was fortunate enough to get a ticket to see Beatles Love by Cirque du Soleil. I had wanted to see this show on previous trips, but $93.50 was a little steep, and those are for cheep seats! Best in the house seats will run you $150 each. However, I was fortunate enough to find out about a special Blog World deal in which Cirque du Soleil offered free tickets to bloggers in exchange for an “honest review on your blog, podcast“. At risk of sounding toady, I think that this was a brilliant idea! What better advertising could you get than reviews from bloggers, some of whom have a network of hundreds or even thousands of subscribers. So, thank you to Cirque du Soleil Social Media Manager, Jessica Berlin. Now on with the review.
The entire Beatles experience begins out side of the theater. The ceiling by the box office has a giant Union Jack, followed by the floor and ceiling leading into the concession area being lit up 70’s style and Beatles music plays over the sound system. By the time you get to your seat, you’re primed and ready for the show to start.
The show begins with the Abby Road song “Because”. Great song, but the performer’s entrance onto the stage feels painfully slow. The acrobats however show amazing strength and control as they slowly ascend ropes to their starting positions high above the stage. Just when you begin to feel fidgety due to lack of action, the music builds in tempo and performers literally explode through the stage floor to the song “Get Back”. You literally go into sensory overload. Music plays through speakers that are built into your seat, acrobats fly through the air, dancers are performing one stage. There was a point where I did not know where to look because I was afraid to miss anything.
One thing that I found particularly forward thinking my the show producers was the inclusion of hip hop dancers among the cast. It would have been very easy to for the producers to make the decision to stick with classical dancers or a dancing style indigenous to the era. Break dancers, poppers and b-boys are featured throughout the show with performances like a step routine to the Beatles classic “Lady Madonna” or in the show’s culmination, “Hey Jude.”
Hands down, the best part of the show for me was “Within You, Without You.” Now, I’ve never experienced an acid trip before, but someone on the development team of Love probably has. In my opinion, this part of the show makes it worth paying the extra money to sit in the lower level of the theater. It all starts with a giant parachute billowing out of the center of the stage like a blooming orchid. From there ushers come down the aisles, and begin to extend the parachute over the audience (They hint to this part at the very beginning of the show, and warn the crowd not to grab a hold of it.) The common reaction among the crowd as this happened can probably be best described as, “WTF.” I was in my seat under a giant piece of canvas beginning to feel ripped off (that is if I paid for my ticket that is), and wondering what was going on on the other side when the light show started.
The psychotropic music of “Within You, Without You” played as colored lights moved across the canvas overhead. Despite being warned not to touch it at the beginning of the performance, I couldn’t resist the urge reach out and touch the canvas. I began to experience what The Glenlivet Ambassador Rick Edwards would refer to as a “sensory hallucination coupled with deja vu.” Suddenly, I was 8 years old again playing with a flashlight under a sheet. I apologize for not being eloquent enough to accurately describe what it was like to be under the canvas, but take my word for it… If you’re going to see Love, be sure to get lower level seats. As you begin to space out under the canvas, (I distinctly remember turning to my neighbor and saying, “I want to come back and see this show stoned.”) the colors fade to dark, and the music transitions to “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” Your color-induced trip is now taken to the opposite extreme; from being surrounded by light to complete darkness. The only light coming from synchronized blinking LEDs.
Although I feel that the second quarter of the show dragged a bit, over all, I think that Love is a fantastic show. The only thing that I would like to see changed would be the inclusion of post Beatles break up songs. I would have loved to have seen what Cirque du Soleil could have done with songs like John Lennon’s “Imagine,” George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord,” or Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die.” Still, the music was great, and the inventiveness of the performances and overall design of the show was vintage Cirque du Soleil. Attending this show was a welcomed change of pace during a hectic four days of Blog World keynotes, expo booths and after parties. I’m glad that I had the opportunity to see this show while I was in Las Vegas, and I highly recommend that you see it as well.
Song stuck in my head at the time of this post: Against the Wind by Bob Seger
