The Beatles - Love

[innerSpaceman]

I'm going to listen to the CD tonight. Perhaps in a few moments (inspired by this thread).

Nothing will stop me from seeing the show. I am among the world's biggest Cirque fans. I am among the world's biggest Beatles fans. Nuff said. I intend to see it before winter is out.

Who's up for a LoTs Vegas Swanktacular for Valentine's Day???!!


In-seat speakers sounds like it might work for this show, but I didn't like it for Ka (once the novelty wore off). One of the best things about Cirque shows is the live music, and the decision to go recorded for the last two Vegas shows is a poor trend, imo.

Another trend is that I've enjoyed each Vegas show a little less than the one before it. Sorry, but O, spectacular as it is, could never top Mystere in its heydey. I love Zumanity, but it's not the WOW that's O. And while I enjoyed Ka, I think it's their weakest permanent production to date. If the trend sticks, that doesn't bode well for Love.

That said, uber-rare is the bad Cirque du Soleil. I saw their traveling show, Delerium, last month - - and it reminded me to never skip anything they do. In fact, the only one I actually didn't enjoy was Quidam.

So while Love may not be great ... it would take a lot of work to make it actually loathesome.

[mousepod]

Sorry, I hate to make my return to LoT all loathe-y and all, but seriously, it was a major disappointment.

First off, I'm a major Beatles fan, so when I read the piece about the show and especially the music, I was fascinated and eager to hear what Sir George and his kid came up with.

Actually, let's rewind a little farther back.

The Beatles wrote and performed a dozen great albums and a bunch of singles. During their brief reign, George Martin supervised the recording of many takes of all of their songs and even mixed alternate versions for singles, mono releases or to be forever consigned to the vaults.

Fast forward.

John Lennon is murdered.

Fast forward again - more than a decade later, the vaults are busted open and the three remaining Beatles decide to put together a trio of "Anthology" releases to coincide with a massive ABC-TV bio. They glue some new instruments and vocals on some otherwise fine demos written as solo pieces by their departed member and rather than present alternate takes or mixes, they released glued-together zombie versions of several different takes. [Here's where I get Rumsfeldian in my rhetoric] New version? Sure. Sanctioned by the living Beatles? Absolutely. New Beatles songs? No way. The Beatles benefit with big bucks -- a half million copies of the first Anthology album sold on the first day. The real fans benefit from the byproduct of the now-leaky vaults - lots of good bootlegs with the complete performances and George Martin mixes.

Fast forward again. George Harrison wants to do a Beatles Cirque show. Some ideas are proposed. Then he dies. Two Beatles left decide to go ahead with the idea, and bring in their original genius producer, even though he is now pretty much deaf. He brings in his son to help. On the Cirque side, they develop a mostly acrobatic and gymnastic dance show with a story that tells the history of the Beatles (more on that later, maybe). Then there's this article in Mojo magazine... which loves Love, and I was fascinated and eager to hear what Sir George and his kid came up with...


(part two of this long post after I watch last night's Daily Show...)

[Stan4dSteph]

Just bought my tickets for Cirque 2007! Montreal, May 2007.

Glad you liked Delirium, ism. You should add to my Rank the Swank thread!

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

I have the Love CD. I like it.

In short, you like Love

[Kevy Baby]

While I have not heard the album in its entirety, what I have heard I enjoyed. I will be purchasing the album.

[innerSpaceman]

Originally Posted by Stan4dSteph

You should add to my Rank the Swank thread!

And so I have.

And my initial reaction to the CD is ... 'meh'

Not that it wasn't interesting and fun, but I don't think I'll be listening to it again. It's a novelty, and really not much more than that. I most enjoyed when many Beatles tunes were fugued together. And I'm sure a hit of LSD would have helped.


But if I want Beatles alternates, the aforementioned Anthology CDs are really more interesting. And I've only listened to those once or twice because the best examples of The Beatles works are the released works of The Beatles.


I'm deeply saddened by mousepod's review of the show. Still ... I've got to see for myself. Cirque du Soleil has let me down only one time out of a dozen, so the odds still favor at least an evening of some enjoyment.


(But, um, it's nice to see ya back around, mousepod!)

[mousepod]

OK... part two.

While I am clearly a Beatles lover, I consider myself a Cirque liker. I was wowed by Alegria, my first show, and have never been transported by another Cirque show quite the same way since. It was kind of like my first acid trip - while later experiences were fun, exciting, and even terrifying, I was never able to capture that initial feeling of awe again. I had never experienced a "permanent" Cirque show - for some reason I've skipped La Nouba time and time again - and my only Vegas theater experience was the tacky and godawful EFX (Hello Dolly --> Phantom --> EFX ... trace Michael Crawford's trajectory, shall we?). I didn't think I'd be in Vegas anytime soon - I live in California, which is of course a world away - so I expected that I would purchase the 5.1 mix of Love when it was released, and choreograph the show in my mind's eye while I grooved on the couch to The Beatles.

Then two things happened. First, I found out that my whole family was going to get together in Las Vegas for Veteran's Day weekend. Then, the 4 song pre-release promo of Love found its way onto my iPod. I ordered a pair of tickets for Love for Saturday night ($275 for the pair including service charge for ninth row - the first several rows go for $325 a pair) and bought my ticket for Las Vegas. I'd be in from Thursday, Heather would arrive on Saturday - and we'd come back to SF on Sunday afternoon.

I listened to the preview tracks and was fairly impressed with the mash-up gimmick. Sure, the editing was sloppy in places, but it wasn't like the producer had the original tapes and millions of dollars of equipment at their disposal (if I did smilies, there'd be a big sarcastic something right about here). As someone who used to play "Beatles needle-drop" with his friends (you'd graze a Beatles record with the needle and identify the song), it is definitely fun in a train-spotting sort of way, but "Good Night" really never did belong with "Octopus's Garden", did it?

Anyway, I'm not a gambler and I'm not shopping too much these days (saving for a move to more Southern climes in the near future - beware), so Las Vegas was about strolling and people-watching for me. It became pretty depressing after the first 20 minutes (quick aside - when I try to describe Disney parks to folks who are familiar with the Vegas of the past 20 years, I tell them that Disney parks are built with money made from people's happiness...) I knew that I couldn't just stroll the strip on Friday night, so I talked my brother-in-law into going to see Ka with me. While I found the music in Ka to be a little "Cirque-y" for me (the mix of new age, "world", and neo-tribal that I have grown to expect from them), the show was a revelation. From the moment the show started, I was transported. It was over-the-top, for sure, but I was amazed by the costumes, the staging and the performers. It was a wonderful balance of "how do they do that?" with "holy crap!". I left the theater thinking, "If this is Cirque circa 2005, imagine how great Love is going to be, especially with Beatles music." To paraphrase the Fab Four, that was my first mistake.

part 3 (the final post in a series) in a bit. I need to clear my head and listen to my favorite new rock anthem for a few minutes.

[mousepod]

Last post - this is the one that actually contains my review of the show.
(By the way - it's nice to be back iSm)

Heather arrived early Saturday morning. We were all staying at the Venetian, and we had a little birthday luncheon for my niece, who had just turned one, in my parents' suite. We strolled down the strip (all the way to Mandalay Bay) and back in time for a casual bite at the Grand Luxe (or something like that) restaurant in the Venetian, which turned out to be a Cheesecake Factory. In all, seven of us were going to shows: 3 to O, 2 to catch Celine (for real), and 2 (that's us) to Love. The Mirage was right across the street, and since we were going to the late show, we ran upstairs for a disco nap.

The casino floor of the Mirage was fairly crowded. The Carnegie Deli (try the corned beef) on our left, the Siegfried and Roy Secret Garden somewhere off in the distance to the right - but straight ahead was the theater that would be the scene of my enrapturement -- or so I hoped.

Like Ka, the ushers and ticket takers were all in costume, to start the experience immediately, er, straight away. We were welcomed by a lovely meter maid. The show is presented in the round, as SzczerbiakManiac pointed out. The 6,000+ speakers that the press release talks about basically amount to the same stereo speakers in the seat back that they use in the Ka theater, plus a speaker pointing at you from the seat back in the person's chair directly in front of you. The inside of the theater is actually not that exciting. There are two 100-foot long movie screens on two opposing walls, and there are movable scrims that quarter the theater (which come out on occasion for some neat movie tricks). The pre-show music featured Beatles music with the lead vocals removed. I treated Heather to some unsolicited geek karaoke. Then the show started.

Love is a freaking mess. It tells a loose story of the history of the Beatles, starting with the rooftop concert (ask a Beatles fan to explain this to you), and flashing back to the Blitz (all of the Beatles were WWII babies) and progressing back up to the breakup. The show is a series of vignettes, all of which feature a few very talented people doing clearly difficult yet beautiful dance pieces while surrounded by a dozen or more people in loud costumes running around them being silly. It's as if someone not connected with Cirque saw Twyla Tharp's take on Billy Joel and said "Let's do this with Beatles music." Then, after the choreography was done, someone else said "We need to have a bunch of acrobats running around in cool costumes, too." Some of it was cool, but most of it either stretched my credulity to the limits (an extended trampoline sequence featuring a phone box - a breakdancer spinning on his head and then gesturing for applause - a loooong inline skate sequence) or was completely offensive. Not offensive in a "they've ruined the Beatles music" way, but offensive in a "Oh my f-ing god, that was seriously homophobic" way. (The rest of this paragraph contains spoilers). One "gag" featured three male characters entering the stage holding flowers. One woman comes out, walks up to the first man, takes his flowers and walks out on his arm. Then two women enter and both of them approach the second man, accept his flowers and walk out on his arms. The last man stands alone the stage with his bouquet when a muscular shirtless hunk enters opposite. The first man quickly hides his bouquet behind his back. Big laughs. Hi-friggin-larious.

One other bit worth spoiling is the vignette where four guys on wires enter the stage in black smoke-emitting costumes flapping broken umbrellas for wings. They thud onto the stage. A man in a lab coat comes out and yells at them: "Blackbird! Singing in the dead of night! Take these broken wings and learn to fly!" etc etc. as the birds attempt to fly. No cheap joke is omitted in this one, from the knee to the groin, to the finale, where the lab coated man snaps on a rubber glove and administers the punch line to one of the Blackbird's butts. Yay Beatles. I remember seeing Paul McCartney a few years ago in San Jose, and he explained to the audience that the song was about the Civil Rights Movement. Not anymore, Sir Paul.

I regret skipping Mystere and O. I want my money back. I want my evening back. Maybe I missed something, but it's gonna take a lot of 'splaining to get get me to reconsider my opinion.

End of rant.

"...and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make"

[Tref]

Originally Posted by mousepod

End of rant.

Hmm ... well, I think the record is quite good myself.

Can you keep a secret? On the Nineteenth track, at precisely, 3:42, I believe I may have heard the voice of God!

Do you doubt my words?

[innerSpaceman]

Hmmm, maybe I'll skip the show after all.


Don't be sorry you skipped Mystere, mr. mousepod. Unless you have a time machine, you have missed that shining moment by more than a decade. In its day, it was the best thing Cirque had ever done, and that show of the first few years remains - imo - the best thing Cirque has ever done.

Funny you should compare Ka to your first acid trip ... because all my friends who first saw Mystere with me that first night felt we were on LSD (and we were all quite familiar with the feeling).



Oh, but do regret you skipped O, a show many times magnificenter than Ka.


Perhaps Love simply has too many letters in the name. I'm beginning to believe it sucks, and at those ticket prices ... well, I just may skip it. Not decided yet. Very sad.