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THE BEATLES 'LOVE' WEEK KICKS OFF ON LUXE LIFE: PHOTOS, EXCLUSIVES AND MORE
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Tuesday, May 30, 2006
THE 2ND
YEAR OF LUXE LIFE ALSO GETS UNDERWAY WITH
OUR BEATLES BONANZA: SENSATIONAL BEHIND-THE-SCENES EXCLUSIVES FROM THE NEW $165 MILLION “LOVE” MUSICAL. WILL YOU FIND THE
HIDDEN SECRET MESSAGE ABOUT VEGAS & WAYNE NEWTON IN
THE CIRQUE SPECTACULAR? IS YOKO PASSING
ON HER SLAIN HUSBAND, JOHN LENNON’S MESSAGES FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE?
We’ll
have all the answers and a whole lot more in our unprecedented four days of
continuous 'LOVE' coverage, exclusive interviews and photos as the new $165 million
majestic musical from Cirque du Soleil
readies to open this week with its
premiere preview performance on
Friday.
But first, our May 22 Luxe Life ‘Elvis Cirque’ scoop (click here) has been completely confirmed by Cirque’s Creative Director Gilles Ste-Croix (pictured with Sgt. Pepper). He also revealed there may even be a seventh and eigth Cirque show in Vegas after the troupe’s Elvis show (its sixth) debuts at the new MGM Project City Center in 2009. He told me: “The Beatles will be followed by our Elvis show. The magic show is not fully confirmed yet, but maybe unofficially. We had been contemplating doing magic before “O” came along even, but we never had the opportunity or the right mixture yet. Just like one day we will do an ice show. I always liked ice-skating so maybe we will that as well. That could be the ninth show”
For now though all eyes are on The Beatles ‘LOVE’ musical and Cirque founder Guy LaLiberte says the June 30 premiere with Paul McCartney, Ringo Star , Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison confirmed to attend will be the biggest entertainment extravaganza of the decade.
At a sneak preview performance, he told of his first meeting with the late George Harrison: “We were both fans of the Grand Prix and when he attended the Montreal race, I invited him to my home. He explained that he was tired and fighting cancer and would only stay 30 minutes in my backyard party. But in fact, he spentthe entire night and the garden became a place of magic. The experience totally touched me as we talked about the possibility of doing something together. He invited me to spend a day in his home. He too had a magic garden when I went to see him in his large mansion near London. He drove me around in a golf cart and we discussed what the emotion of the ‘LOVE’ show could be.”
It’s incredible that the secret of a Beatles show never
slipped out, but if only we’d put one and one together back on February 23, 2001 when our
Review-Journal; columnist Norm Clarke reported that both Harrison and Paul
McCartney had visited “O” with their wives at The Bellagio. George had talked
Paul into seeing a Cirque show for the first time and finally approved of the
project.
Guy continued: “His dream was he would live to see it created before he died. Unfortunately, he died in November 2001 with the paperwork to make it all happen tied up with lawyers and business people, but his death made everybody determined to get it done to continue the legacy.”
Guy gave special credit to the two Beatle widows, Yoko and Olivia, for their creative contributions to the show: “My admiration for them is great. They sat in on video conferencing to help make, mold and shape this musical. All of them have seen the finished show except for Ringo, who will first see it gt its premiere.” Gilles Ste.Croixe, the production’s creator, said he’d spent four entire years eating, sleeping and drinking everything Beatles – and visiting their Liverpool, Hamburg and London haunts and the famed Abbey Road recording studios. He said: “We have made a great visual interpretation of their songs and music – and all has been done with love. It is a 90-minute journey into THEIR world!”
Renowned record-producer, Sir George Martin, commented: “ I had the privilege of growing up with this most talented group. Life is too short to not work with people you don’t enjoy -- and they were the greatest throughout. My mission was to create a panorama soundscape that ran an uninterrupted 90 minutes like a symphony. I was told I could use anything I’d recorded with them from the over 45 years. Nothing is impossible to Cirque and it was the same for The Beatles. They worked stronger and better together rather than separately and I’m still today realizing how deep their talent ran.”
Mirage resort employees get the first look, tonight, tomorrow and Thursday before public previews begin for the first time on Friday, June 2.
Our 12-minute sneak run-through was mind-blowing. A giant drape that covers every member of the circular audience all the way back to the last row is used as a screen to project images on it from above and below to immerse spectators. The futuristic world under the sea merging 'Octopus Garden' and 'Good Night' together with luminescent octopus, the psychedelic images flashing on the wrap-around movie screens , the jewel-encrusted female acrobats lowered from the ceiling amidst a sea of twinkling lights to ‘Lucy in the Sky,’ the psychedelic ‘Sgt. Pepper,’ the classic Volkswagen Beetle (filled with dancers) from the Abbey Road album cover and the colorful costumes, skateboarding acrobats will all wow like never before. Even the mechanical dancing boots splashing in the water to ‘Lady Madonna’ have a humorous laughter to them.
The audience will be fully wrapped in sound from 6,305 speakers – including one that’s installed in each of the 2,000 seats! “It’s a Beatles experience rather than a Beatles story” said direcgtor Dominic Champagne. “It takes the audience on an emotional journey rather than a chronological one.”
I talked with Gilles Ste.Croix about the possible fear of there being too many Cirque shows in Vegas, and if the new Beatles show would harm the now 14-year old Mystere- the first show they brought to the Strip. “No, we don’t think so. Our average is 92% full since the very beginning and we are still doing 87% into the 2nd decade. I thought about changing up to 30% of it but , the MGM executives said “ don’t dare touch it; the original is working just fine without a fix.”
He also confirmed that tickets will go on sale next Saturday (June 10) for a new Cirque large-stadium spectacular, ‘Delirium’ (pictured below), to play September 8 and 9 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena: “It is multimedia with very large projection screens .We have 11 live musicians, 6 singers, 18 dancers, 8 acrobats and 4 main performers .We always had a plan to bring in ‘Delirium during’ the dark period of the Cirque shows – when everything is being cleaned, checked and replaced.” It’s the most massive technical production ever created for touring, with the 130 feet, 2-sided stage bisecting the arena to submerge the audience inside the giant set and a 540 feet screen -- the equivalent of four IMAX screens!
We’ll be back later today with a bonus our regular Luxe Life edition that has the wild weekend wrap-up of superstar concerts and striptease parties as Madonna and Prince battle it out to become King or Queen of the Strip!
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THE BEATLES 'LOVE' WEEK KICKS OFF ON LUXE LIFE: PHOTOS, EXCLUSIVES AND MORE
THE 2ND
YEAR OF LUXE LIFE ALSO GETS UNDERWAY WITH
OUR BEATLES BONANZA: SENSATIONAL BEHIND-THE-SCENES EXCLUSIVES FROM THE NEW $165 MILLION “LOVE” MUSICAL. WILL YOU FIND THE
HIDDEN SECRET MESSAGE ABOUT VEGAS & WAYNE NEWTON IN
THE CIRQUE SPECTACULAR? IS YOKO PASSING
ON HER SLAIN HUSBAND, JOHN LENNON’S MESSAGES FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE? We’ll
have all the answers and a whole lot more in our unprecedented four days of
continuous 'LOVE' coverage, exclusive interviews and photos as the new $165 million
majestic musical from Cirque du Soleil
readies to open this week with its
premiere preview performance on
Friday.
But first, our May 22 Luxe Life ‘Elvis Cirque’ scoop (click here) has been completely confirmed by Cirque’s Creative Director Gilles Ste-Croix (pictured with Sgt. Pepper). He also revealed there may even be a seventh and eigth Cirque show in Vegas after the troupe’s Elvis show (its sixth) debuts at the new MGM Project City Center in 2009. He told me: “The Beatles will be followed by our Elvis show. The magic show is not fully confirmed yet, but maybe unofficially. We had been contemplating doing magic before “O” came along even, but we never had the opportunity or the right mixture yet. Just like one day we will do an ice show. I always liked ice-skating so maybe we will that as well. That could be the ninth show”
For now though all eyes are on The Beatles ‘LOVE’ musical and Cirque founder Guy LaLiberte says the June 30 premiere with Paul McCartney, Ringo Star , Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison confirmed to attend will be the biggest entertainment extravaganza of the decade.
At a sneak preview performance, he told of his first meeting with the late George Harrison: “We were both fans of the Grand Prix and when he attended the Montreal race, I invited him to my home. He explained that he was tired and fighting cancer and would only stay 30 minutes in my backyard party. But in fact, he spentthe entire night and the garden became a place of magic. The experience totally touched me as we talked about the possibility of doing something together. He invited me to spend a day in his home. He too had a magic garden when I went to see him in his large mansion near London. He drove me around in a golf cart and we discussed what the emotion of the ‘LOVE’ show could be.”
It’s incredible that the secret of a Beatles show never
slipped out, but if only we’d put one and one together back on February 23, 2001 when our
Review-Journal; columnist Norm Clarke reported that both Harrison and Paul
McCartney had visited “O” with their wives at The Bellagio. George had talked
Paul into seeing a Cirque show for the first time and finally approved of the
project.
Guy continued: “His dream was he would live to see it created before he died. Unfortunately, he died in November 2001 with the paperwork to make it all happen tied up with lawyers and business people, but his death made everybody determined to get it done to continue the legacy.”
Guy gave special credit to the two Beatle widows, Yoko and Olivia, for their creative contributions to the show: “My admiration for them is great. They sat in on video conferencing to help make, mold and shape this musical. All of them have seen the finished show except for Ringo, who will first see it gt its premiere.” Gilles Ste.Croixe, the production’s creator, said he’d spent four entire years eating, sleeping and drinking everything Beatles – and visiting their Liverpool, Hamburg and London haunts and the famed Abbey Road recording studios. He said: “We have made a great visual interpretation of their songs and music – and all has been done with love. It is a 90-minute journey into THEIR world!”
Renowned record-producer, Sir George Martin, commented: “ I had the privilege of growing up with this most talented group. Life is too short to not work with people you don’t enjoy -- and they were the greatest throughout. My mission was to create a panorama soundscape that ran an uninterrupted 90 minutes like a symphony. I was told I could use anything I’d recorded with them from the over 45 years. Nothing is impossible to Cirque and it was the same for The Beatles. They worked stronger and better together rather than separately and I’m still today realizing how deep their talent ran.”
Mirage resort employees get the first look, tonight, tomorrow and Thursday before public previews begin for the first time on Friday, June 2.
Our 12-minute sneak run-through was mind-blowing. A giant drape that covers every member of the circular audience all the way back to the last row is used as a screen to project images on it from above and below to immerse spectators. The futuristic world under the sea merging 'Octopus Garden' and 'Good Night' together with luminescent octopus, the psychedelic images flashing on the wrap-around movie screens , the jewel-encrusted female acrobats lowered from the ceiling amidst a sea of twinkling lights to ‘Lucy in the Sky,’ the psychedelic ‘Sgt. Pepper,’ the classic Volkswagen Beetle (filled with dancers) from the Abbey Road album cover and the colorful costumes, skateboarding acrobats will all wow like never before. Even the mechanical dancing boots splashing in the water to ‘Lady Madonna’ have a humorous laughter to them.
The audience will be fully wrapped in sound from 6,305 speakers – including one that’s installed in each of the 2,000 seats! “It’s a Beatles experience rather than a Beatles story” said direcgtor Dominic Champagne. “It takes the audience on an emotional journey rather than a chronological one.”
I talked with Gilles Ste.Croix about the possible fear of there being too many Cirque shows in Vegas, and if the new Beatles show would harm the now 14-year old Mystere- the first show they brought to the Strip. “No, we don’t think so. Our average is 92% full since the very beginning and we are still doing 87% into the 2nd decade. I thought about changing up to 30% of it but , the MGM executives said “ don’t dare touch it; the original is working just fine without a fix.”
He also confirmed that tickets will go on sale next Saturday (June 10) for a new Cirque large-stadium spectacular, ‘Delirium’ (pictured below), to play September 8 and 9 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena: “It is multimedia with very large projection screens .We have 11 live musicians, 6 singers, 18 dancers, 8 acrobats and 4 main performers .We always had a plan to bring in ‘Delirium during’ the dark period of the Cirque shows – when everything is being cleaned, checked and replaced.” It’s the most massive technical production ever created for touring, with the 130 feet, 2-sided stage bisecting the arena to submerge the audience inside the giant set and a 540 feet screen -- the equivalent of four IMAX screens!
We’ll be back later today with a bonus our regular Luxe Life edition that has the wild weekend wrap-up of superstar concerts and striptease parties as Madonna and Prince battle it out to become King or Queen of the Strip!
robinsvegas at 9:08:00 AM PDT Blog about this entry |
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