Meantime, how Love came about is a story of serendipity and good and bad luck. Apparently George Harrison who never gets enough credit for his creative brainstorms approached Guy Laliberte, the companys founder, with an idea of some kind of collaboration. When Siegfried & Roy was suddenly forced to close down, the Mirage reached out to Laliberte, who brought in the idea of a Beatles show. The project has not transformed this hotel, which had lost its trendiness. The hotel, which once sported an indoor rainforest, now seems energized as Beatlemania seeps into every area.
Originally, the plan was to use the existing theater, but then Champagne and his crew got the idea from Get Back to mimic the movie it appeared in, "Let it Be." Thus, the show is designed to look like the London rooftop where the final concert in "Let it Be" was performed. The theater has been reconfigured into a round, so that the audience feels like they are on other rooftops watching the concert, Champagne said.
The result is a whole new theater, and one not easily renovated again. Cirque du Soleil and the Mirage are obviously confident that have a hit on their hands.
Indeed, Love is the talk of Las Vegas right now.
We think it will be here for a long time, Champagne said yesterday.
If nothing else, it will bring the Beatles to a whole new audience. The director told us yesterday that when he started rehearsing with the cast of 63, many of them didnt know much about the greatest rock band in history.
They said, I know one of them is dead, he reported. Most of them are 22 or 23 years old. They didnt know the songs.
And that will change, too: Capitol is set to release a soundtrack for Love in November, just in time for Christmas. A new wave of Beatlemania is on its way.