Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil

When I was 12 I saw theamazing Beatles performance in Vancouver with my two cousins and our Mom’s. I remember screaming along with all the other girls in the audience when John, Paul, George and Ringo came onstage. They didn’t even have to sing for the girls to start swooning! Yes, I think it was still swooning back in those days – lol.

I am eternally grateful I was one of the lucky ones to actually see the Beatles in a live performance and know they helped shape my teen years in an amazing way. Seriously, I had a Beatles haircut and a Nehru jacket. I also still have my ticket stub and pennant from the concert. In 1990 our local newspaper, the Vancouver Sun, asked people to write in about their concert experience as a 35 year anniversary celebration. Of course I wrote a letter and was published. So, you see, the Beatles impacted my life and continue to do so.

Jessica Berlin, the Social Media Manager, for Cirque provided two tickets to LOVE for me while I attended Affiliate Summit West 2010 in Las Vegas.

I stayed in Las Vegas a couple extra days after Affiliate Summit and my best friend, Paulette, and I saw the show January 21 at the Mirage and were totally enthralled. Paulette is 2 years older than so grew up with the same love of the Beatles music as me. We arrived at the Mirage a couple of hours early at the Mirage to pick up our tickets at the Will Call desk then found a fabulous deli where we ordered a light dinner. We sat in a bar to eat, hoping to have a drink before the show but the waitress wouldn’t make eye contact so we assumed she wasn’t happy about us sitting in her lounge, eating – her loss – we cleaned up all our garbage and didn’t spend money on drinks or a tip.

We went into the Theatre to find our seats, which were row 7 (very, very close to the stage) then I went for drinks. A Charlie Chaplin dressed dude was in the lobby and came over to talk to a beautiful young lady who was in line right behind me. Of course I had to take pictures and join the convo! As I put my arm around him, I could feel his coat vibrating and thought perhaps it was a cell phone in his pocket – WRONG – it was a built in fan to keep him cool.

As I sat back down in my seat, the show started – and it was non-stop for 90 minutes. The music of course was all Beatles and included a few live rehearsal sessions with very funny repertoire. I loved hearing the Beatles voices as though they were in the room with us and there were various holograms throughout the night showing them in concert.

The costumes were totally amazing, the acrobatics were astounding and the interpretation of the psychadelic era was very odd from a 2010 perspective, but wonderful. Seriously, you had to LIVE those days to truly understand! My favourite act was the rollerskaters, who put on a fabulous presentation. Or maybe it was the Blackbird who descended from the sky – squawking before flying right into the front 3 rows, scaring the ‘you know what’ right out of the audience a second before we realized he was on a bungy cord type thing!

During one section, the entire audience was covered in a parachute type cloth which blew in waves over us, just at arms reach. I’m not sure what that was about but it enveloped us like a fog – you’d have to experience it to understand the connection it created. There were a few times when I had to ask myself if everyone in the audience could see the same show as me – how did they do those holograms so they look the same from every seat??? Or, do they?

I feel as though I’ve come full circle with the Beatles now, through the last 45 years. Their music is timeless and has been a tremendously important part of my life. Seeing the Cirque LOVE show took me back in time, while being contemporary, and extremely artistic – and acrobatic of course. I’d highly recommend seeing it whether you are a teen or a baby boomer.

Thank you to Cirque du Soleil and Jessica Berlin for the opportunity to be totally amazed and awed by a fabulous Cirque show.