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THE BEATLES EXPERIENCE AT THE MIRAGE

by Tumbleweed Smith

In honor of my youngest son BZ’s birthday we gathered at Las Vegas. All of our immediate family was there except for the three youngest ones whose ages range from two to four.

My son Kevin spent four months putting together a video of BZ’s life. He did a superb job. Producing TV spots is the way he makes a living. He was extremely protective of it and never showed it to anybody until he unveiled it at BZ’s birthday party. It was worth the wait. We all just howled. It was hilarious.

BZ is a musician and loves the Beatles. So does Jackson, our 17-year-old grandson. We went to see the Beatles’s LOVE show, produced by Cirque Du Soliel at the Mirage.

It is the most thrilling stage presentation I have ever seen. It literally took my breath away. The custom built theater must be a dozen stories high. It needs that space because people appear to fly through the air. We see the ropes they use, but the illusion of flight is still there.

The music is stimulating. The Beatles’ producer went back to the master tapes and took the words to one song and put them to the music of another. It was an extremely innovative piece of audio production. Throughout the performance we heard playful conversation among the Beatles at a recording session.

LOVE has every theatrical trick ever imagined and then some. It features skateboarding, sky-high trampoline bounces, set pieces coming down from above or below and two Volkswagens on stage, one of which suddenly breaks up, sending parts flying. The audience is on sensory overload from the beginning. Huge screens on opposite sides of the theater show the Beatles in front of a psychedelic background while the stage and the space above it are filled with people doing all kinds of stunts. Giant sliding scrims show digitally projected images of Beatles in silhouette. A tricycle maneuvers around the stage with no one on it. A giant silky sheet covers the entire audience. It is a whirlwind of new, fresh ideas possible only with advanced technology. LOVE is unbridled fantasy performed with the joyous exuberance that only talented young people can provide. It is not only an interpretation of the Beatles’s music, but also an interpretation of their impact on the world.

Beatles music is almost sacred. Nobody can perform it the way the four lads from Liverpool could. One of the early scenes shows the devastation in Liverpool after World War Two, the time the Beatles were being born. Suddenly the stage opens up and the catastrophic rubble falls into the abyss. The stage can instantly transform itself into different shapes, sizes and levels. The theater has hundreds of lights that put on a show of their own. You not only hear Beatles songs. You see and feel them as well. Please go experience LOVE. Your life will be enriched.

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