All You Need is (Cirque du Soleil's) LOVE (30 May 2019)

            Las Vegas, the Sin City of the United States! Far from my usual scene – VERY far metaphorically— I was here for a purpose. By here, I mean the Mirage Hotel and casino, all for a showing of Cirque du Soleil’s LOVE. (They have a theater too.) Unfortunately, the building put me into a miserable mood – though large, the entire lobby was set aside for a casino and a fake forest, without any seats anywhere save for slot machines. Ironic that the place that only existed, to me, for Cirque du Soleil was so frustratingly hollow. For half an hour, I took a sitting nap, wiling away the boring amount of time before 7:00 PM.

            Not yet have I discussed LOVE itself! Though the Mirage Hotel is entirely lackluster, the promise of this attraction weighed on my mind. For the past 12 years, this performance, which rearranges Beatles music into sonically-centered acting on a stage, has been happening at this hotel. To put it simply, there is much pressure riding on this evening for me. It is the highlight of my Las Vegas trip – it *has* to be.

            As unimpressive as the Mirage Hotel is, its circular theater features an impressive sense of scale, aided by the two large screens running along the walls. Imbued by a blue light, this stage was, without a single performer yet standing on it, exuding a cool aura. Then the yellow stage lights came on, and the announcer gave his spiel. No flash photography, no videos, no sound recording. Usual stuff for this sort of thing.

            A 90 minute performance cannot be neatly summarized, especially one as vibrant as this, but I shall make a valiant effort. From what I understood, LOVE draws a thread between the Beatles growing up in the post-WWII era, seeing rising authoritarianism in the United Kingdom, and demonstrating a radical commitment to love in the face of repression. The Beatles, as suggested by the stage show, used their influence to help curb state-sanctioned violence, represented by some rather corny cops with batons. Even if you felt like the Beatles had little depth left, you will likely find yourself surprised by this energetic show. “We all want to change the world”, in the words of one of their songs. “All you need is love”, in the words of another of their songs. Together these two lyrics best define what Cirque du Soleil’s LOVE is all about.

 

My preferred strategy here is to talk about what was done well, and then pivot towards how the work could be made even more powerful.

 

First of all, the variety was excellent and the greatest draw of the entire performance; every song, and there were many, felt like they adopted a unique identity, especially the songs describing creative visual imagery. Set and costume design strongly supported this pursuit, making every scene stand out.

            Filled with creative expression, there was rarely a moment where the show felt uninspired. Often this occurred through a combination of acrobatics in the air while other performers danced and moved across the stage. The motions themselves captured many aspects of human expression, especially on love.    Additionally, the stage was always filled, with lighting, with performers, with smoke, with the sets. This included transitions, where we would see performers rush onto or off the stage, with a grand gesture, and where the props were changed. Even these transitions were smoothly refined, ensuring that we always had something to keep our eyes on.

 

The visual experimentation must be thoroughly and highly praised. A beautiful use of lighting permeated every scene, and provided as much energy as the music or the performances. Often curtains and screens were used to both provide additional sources of sensory stimulation, but also to divert light and create excellent effects. In this regard, the highlight of the show came when a periwinkle blue tarp was flown over the audience; though little participation was required, it provided an admirably transient view of the staging, drawing our attention to how the lighting changed throughout this scene. Though perhaps a tad claustrophobic, the tarp was one such highlight of the show that felt like it came from extensive experimentation. Through these many experiments, the performance came off as nakedly memorable and powerful, even as some parts perhaps seem rough.

 

Though each scene is quite strong, some were especially strong, especially when paired with surreal visual imagery. For example, we saw a school of jellyfish floating overhead during the “Octopus’s Garden” performance, which stuck out in my mind. The beautiful red glow during “Strawberry Fields”, with the sky filled with bubbles, also managed to thoroughly capture myself as a viewer. (On the flip side, a song like “Come Together”, which lacks this aesthetic cohesion, is not nearly as memorable.) The bubble effect was called back when a series of rose petals were dropped overhead during the closing act of the performance, also providing a memorable scene. However, it would be entirely remiss to ignore “Revolution”, which offers a thematic centerpiece of the performance. The aforementioned silly cops appear as the villains of the scene, as people run from cops, while others resist them. This offers a perspective on the Beatles that is not quite novel, but brought me to a new light of their music. I’d forgotten how inspirational their work appears in original context.

 

The roughly three-song conclusion consisted of “Hey Jude”, “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Heart Clubs Band”, and “All You Need is Love” – and it worked quite well! “Hey Jude” worked to reassure the audience and the Beatles themselves of how adversity can be overcome. “Sgt Pepper’s” gave us the last rush of energy, and let us know the show was concluding. However, “All You Need is Love” provided the curtain call

            Given that the performance has been going on for 12 years, LOVE clearly can adapt to fit changing tastes of audiences. In light of that, there are clear areas that could be improved to make LOVE even stronger. Though the deep dive of the Beatles’ music is awe-inspiring, there is a sense that too many songs are made into dance numbers, making LOVE feel incredibly dense, with little rest. On a practical level, this meant that my ears often did not have a chance to recover between songs. There are exceptions of course – the use of “While my Guitar Gently Weeps” offered a very clean, yet soothing, transition.

 

The overabundance of songs also hurt the ability for the narrative to connect as much as possible. While my ears did hurt, I also observed that some performances were difficult to understand as a cohesive narrative. If the number of songs was reduced, then spoken word, or dialogue, could be used more extensively to guide the viewer through the story. In the earlier parts of LOVE, where the tone is still being set, this would have solidified the goals of the work. That is not to say spoken word should usurp the circus elements – that would defeat the purpose! – but its usage could help the viewer keep track. Perhaps some type of brief recap every ‘third’ of the show would help here. Ultimately, the conclusion of LOVE works beautifully, and these improvements would raise the finale even more.

            There are also some rather experimental techniques used – we see avant-garde mixing of circus and 2D animation for example – that could also be strung together to create an implied narrative. For example, if certain kinds of stage lighting were consistently used throughout the performance, we could associate that lighting with a theme. These techniques are consistently used to keep the performance lively – and they surely succeeded – but could be used to bolster the narrative as well.

 

All in all, Cirque du Soleil’s LOVE offers a fascinating introspection on the Beatles, even with their legendary status. Not being a Beatles fan, I did not connect with the music very directly, and largely relied on the excellent performances, and various visual techniques, to attach great meaning to the show. That, to me, demonstrates how largely effective LOVE is. LOVE could be made even stronger by using speaking and visual techniques to connect the narrative segments together more cleanly. However, the fact that nearly every scene worked very well held up the show. In the end, this *is* my highlight of this Las Vegas Trip, and this position is well-deserved.