Celebrity Gossip From Las Vegas With Robin Leach | Luxe Life Digest

As predicted here exclusively, the new $130 million Beatles musical will open officially on June 30 complete with new “original” songs and even rare studio conversations between John, Paul, George and Ringo!! The moment Luxe Life scooped with the secrets of the new Beatles show Love, the phenomenal Cirque du Soleil folks are presenting at the Mirage  we got an exclusively authorized peek behind all the security. This all will be one of the biggest events in world musical history for the past quarter-century!

“Love has been in the works creatively for the past two years at Cirque” said Cirque’s Director of Marketing & Public Relations, Jennifer Dunne. “Guy LaLiberte, Cirque’s founder actually met the late George Harrison several years ago at one of his famous parties for the Formula One races in Montreal where Cirque is head-quartered. They formed a close friendship and before George died, Guy made a promise to him that he would create a show to celebrate The Beatles and their legacy.

Now that promise comes true and the Beatles will be remembered and celebrated for their exuberance, their spirit, and their adventure. This show is a whole and completely new show than we’ve ever done before- very very different. It’s the 1st time we have integrated projections into a show. It’s the first time we have a 360-degree theater sort of in the round. It’s a very intimate setting and the surround sound system is insane with 3 speakers in every seat so people sitting in the theater will be immersed in Beatles sound. The audio and visual experience will be really extraordinary and spectacular.”

Cirque confirmed the $130 million price tag for the staging of the show and the reconstruction of the former Siegfried & Roy showroom at the Mirage resort. “We essentially took their former theater and not only completely gutted it, but also extended it so its 50 feett longer everywhere. We knocked down the proscenium to install the theater in the round with 2015 seats -- with no seat more than 98 feet from the stage. So the entire feeling is very intimate,” said the Jennifer.

She explained how Cirque has access to old Beatles archives of previously unreleased and never heard recordings by the four Liverpool lads, “Their original producer, Sir George Martin and his son Giles Martin, have collaborated in the past, but this is the most important ever project to them. Cirque has been given access to the catalog of songs and the entire audio archives. That includes conversations they had in the recording studio between sessions. It also includes fragments of songs that were never put on their old albums and some never recorded in full so they are reworking the entire sound staple for the show.”

“By nature of Cirque theater production we don’t have just the start and end of a song. We build performance around music so because there is no dead air between songs and music there has to be transitions so we are creating an entire soundscape for the entire show. It’s difficult to say what comes first, the music or the performance. You will hear new sounds, new workings of familiar music and new songs. It’s going to be really interesting because we can’t pinpoint an exact song list so we will leave it to Beatles fans to figure out what they are hearing – and how fragments lead into and out of specific songs.”

Cirque is so determined that the music won’t be heard in advance that even the performers themselves have to undergo security checks through metal detectors so nobody can smuggle anything in or out. Cirque even has security check its own staff videographers while they make a documentary of the production being put together from first rehearsals to first night for future worldwide release or telecast. The soundtrack album will be released on Apple Records by EMI in the fall. The company’s statistics show that during the last 15 years, Beatles records, tapes and CDs have gone beyond 600-million units sold. .

It’s definite that Ringo Starr will be attending the June 30 opening night as he is in Vegas on July 1 for a concert at Mandalay Bay. Luxe Life has been reliably told that Sir Paul McCartney, along with Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison, will also attend.

“They have already attended and been involved in our rehearsals without anybody even knowing about it. They have been wholly involved in the entire process because they are the shareholders of Apple -- their company. We have met with them and they’ve even been in the new theater and are very excited about it. Cirque is known for its high caliber of theatrical high-tech so what you will get will be the best lighting, the best music, the best artists so its overwhelmingly spectacularly huge at every step.”

Just this past weekend Sir Paul took a full tour of the completed theater and gave it a double thumbs-up of approval.

No Cirque performers will actually portray The Beatles in any manner. “In fact there is no literal representation of the Beatles. We will evoke their presence, their legacy without giving a specific literal representation of either one of the four,” Jennifer added.

However, Luxe Life has learned that there will be puppets in the production as part of the Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band -- and don’t be surprised if your mind tells you that the Fab Four are leading the procession!! Front row seats will be priced at $150 after the opening and reducing down to $69 in the upper level, with two shows nightly at 7.30pm and 10.30pm after July 1. Previews begin June 2 and I promise not to review it during the final tinkering before the June 30 gala night, but we’ll sneak you a few more revelations to whet your appetite even more.

The Cirque creative team includes Dominic Champagne as director and show concept writer and puppet designer Michael Curry. Said Gilles Ste Croix, the director of creation for Love, “We set out to create a timeless, three-dimensional evocation of The Beatles music. Now we have an international cast of 60 with raw, youthful energy underscored by aerial performance, extreme sports and urban freestyle dance.”

Incidentally, the Mirage is home to the world famous fiery volcano, and even that is undergoing a change as The Beatles come to town. The entire resort hotel is undergoing an amazing transformation, and when completed next year, the volcano will have a new look too -- fire explosions blasting taller and hotter looking lava and louder sounds to make it even more realistic and terrifying.

Wynn-Wynn Situation
Congratulations to Steve Wynn and his wife Elaine on breaking ground tomorrow on his new $1.7 billion, 2,600 room Encore resort alongside his new Wynn property. April 28th is a big day on the Wynn’s calendar because first, we must wish Elaine a very Happy Birthday, but secondly, it’s also the date in 2000 that he bought the Desert Inn land and just a year ago opened the new Wynn hotel on it!!! But he promises not to wait until April 28, 2008 to open Encore saying he’ll be open for business in December 07! First up, though he has to open his $1.1 billion Wynn Macau resort on September 5 in the Chinese-controlled colony near Hong Kong.

Nine Lives
Andrew Lloyd Webber, acknowledged as the master of musical theater, has a special 25th year celebration of his Cats production planned for Vegas. On May 11, 1981 Cats opened in London becoming the longest running musical in the history of British theater. The Broadway show began in 1982 and when it ended its 18-year-run in September 2000 it had become the longest running musical in 1997. Well, if cats have nine lives, seems his show might too. Now five continents, 26 countries, almost 9 million audience members have seen it as the longest continuously touring show in history and it winds up in Vegas at the Aladdin on Wednesday, June 7 thru Sunday, June 11 with 8 performances to mark the quarter-century achievement.

Strip Scribblings
In the next three weeks, expect the definite announcement of a minimum three-year contract for the Miss America beauty pageant to be based in Vegas, as final details are hammered out with several hotels to unite in a Strip solution to provide rooms for the contestants… The NY newspaper and internet site that started rumors flying about Cher becoming a permanent headliner here doesn’t have that correct -- at least not YET. Although there are also negotiations off-and-ongoing with Bette Midler’s agents, that deal is also not done -- YET. Luxe Life will keep tabs on the truths and the rumors to see which lady, if either, will win out to become the next new Vegas resident… Congrats to my friend Rand Capp for bringing his Triple Crown of Polo shows to ESPN with match-ups of the “Sport of Kings” in Florida, Texas and Santa Barbara this summer. Can Vegas be far behind?... American Idol judge Simon Cowell is planning his NBC summer series “Got Talent” to discover potential stars around America with the winners coming to Vegas to compete for a headliner’s run at one of our super resort -- more details as they finalize them.

Tonight’s Tip, April 27
GQ Magazine kicks off a three-day weekend celebration of special events headlined Hollywood in Vegas with the wrap party for the third season of NBC’s hit show Scrubs with all the cast in attendance to also launch the DVD release.

You can also surgically wrap up Luxe Life by writing to us at robinsvegas@aol.com with your comments scalpel sharp but remember to join us right here tomorrow when Joan Collins takes us behind the cameras at TV’s Dynasty reunion and the battle of bums on the Strip heats up with lofty lawyer letters. To ensure you don’t miss an exciting edition of Luxe Life click here or at the 'Alert Me' uptop if you’d like to know the moment the new edition of Luxe Life is posted.

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