A few months ago I got to see the Cirque du Soleil show put to the music of the Beatles – Love. I have mixed feelings about Cirque du Soleil. Frankly, I’m not a fan of French Clowns. My feelings are best summed up by this still hysterical Expedia ad:

At the same time, I have to admit, in the three Cirque shows I have seen there has usually been a minimum of French clownery, and a maximum of incredible acrobatics and super high quality production details. And high quality attention to detail is something can appreciate even if the overall show isn’t my cup of tea.

That said, the Beatles definitely are my cup of tea. (I recently became aquainted with the Fab Faux who’s note-for-note perfect live recreations of incredibly complicated Beatles tracks is mind-blowing.) High quality production, Beatles music, Vegas, lots of money… certainly worth a try.

The show overall was good. It was lots of the trademark acrobatics and dancing that Cirque just owns. And frankly that can get a little tiring after awhile. Though it was punctuated with a couple of tricks they did that really were incredible impressive. But what carried the show was the music.

Surprisingly the tracks were not just the straight tracks lifted from the records, but they were each re-mixed slightly. Not only did the songs flow into each other beautifully, but the sound quality was incredible — each song reproduced with incredible clarity. From Audiophile Audition:

“…’Love’ is a whole new ball game because Martin and his son Giles went back to those four-channel original tapes and remixed them into genuine six-channel versions for this unprecedented Beatles reissue. In some cases they dropped out the original instrumental backing completely; on While My Guitar Gently Weeps, the elder Martin arranged a backing of a string section – the only completely new music heard on the disc. Parts of some songs were used, flowing smoothly into another song that suddenly becomes closely connected, as though they were written together in the first place. Small sections of some songs are used as transitions to a different song.”

Those moments where bits and pieces of different songs from different albums interleave seamlessly are pure magic for me. My favorite is the strings from Good Night (last song on the White album) behind the introduction to Octopus’ Garden, and then reappearing (back in its original key) at the end of All You Need is Love and closing out the show. Gorgeous.

Perhaps my favorite signature music moment in popular music is when a theme is built up in a song without a bass line constantly repeating so that when the bass finally arrives there is this incredible sense of release. Almost like a car revving at the peak of the engine’s ability finally to have the emergency break released so that the car could move. When the bass hits, the song finally is allowed to move forward. And it was this moment, even though it came in the first few minutes of the Cirque show that was my favorite moment of the night.

The show is done in the round in a huge theater. The lights are low. In the near dark you get teased with a couple of minutes of the ethereal vocals from Because. And then, after a long pause you hear the instantly recognizable first guitar chord from Help, followed immediately by Ringo’s drum solo from The End (last track on Let it Be). Amid the ambient noise and strings rises the introduction to Get Back. After the song you’ll think that the drums had always been part of Get Back (or at least I did). The volume slowly gets louder and louder until it’s almost deafening. There’s bass in the repeating progression but it’s a tease, never letting the song get truly going. In the meantime the huge theater is divided into four quadrants with semi-transparent curtains hanging between each section. Projected on the screens (and viewable from boths sides) are iconic sillouhettes of the Beatles (from their mop top days) playing along with the music. You can see all four even though only two curtains are immediately next to you because of the translucency. And finally when the tension has built to its peak, the bass kicks in, the song gets going, the curtains disappear in a huge dramatic sweep, the lights focus on the stage, and confetti fills the air.

There’s no way to describe this moment as anything but sexual.

We went with friends who thought the show wasn’t great. But I say they were being “too cool for school”. I will admit that at times it felt like we were watching a French Canadian interpretation of London during World War II. Lots of bombs. Lots of mimes. But with the music being so good, the visuals didn’t need to be home runs to help carry the show. And as always, Cirque’s focus on quality and even the tiniest detail was superb. And no matter what you think of their shows, delivering that kind of quality (never mind delivering it night after night) is an accomplishment we can all admire.