World needs Cirque's Love, critics say

Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrisonare among the celebrities expected at the official opening of Cirque du Soleil's new extravaganza, Love, on Friday at the Mirage hotel in Las Vegas.

Critics are ravingabout Love — a combination of the Beatles' ethic and the Quebec circus troupe's famed showmanship.

The Toronto Star's Richard Ouzounian called Love a "magical mystery tour you'll never forget."

While McCartney and Starr will be in the audience, the Fab Four are all represented on stage in the new show, based on a reworking of master tapes from Beatles recording sessions. They appear as shadow images and disembodied voices, with Starr's drum starting the show and John Lennon's voicesaying good night at the end.

Before his death in 2001, George Harrison came up with the idea of teaming with Cirque du Soleil. His widow, Olivia, pursued theconcept, and got the go-ahead from Apple Corps Ltd. in 2002.

Interviews, photo montages and footage from the Beatles'last concert on a central London rooftop play in huge back projections while acrobats and dancers take to the stage.

'Hear Beatles with fresh ears'

The Beatles' music dominates the show, with producer George Martin guiding a remastering of both old favourites and previously unheard recordings from Apple studios in London.

Even familiar songs such as Revolution, Yesterday and Blackbird are given a fresh, new sound.

"Cirque du Soleil is also overpoweringly moving. For it achieves the apparently impossible, allowing you to hear the Beatles with fresh ears," said the Daily Telegraph.

McCartney and Starr were involved with the project, working with Ono, Lennon's widow,andHarrison. It's the first time the Beatles have granted rights to some of the unheard tracks.

For Cirque, it is a departure to base a show on almost contemporary themes, instead of folklore or circus culture, but the Los Angeles Times says it's a formula that works.

"They've come up with an extravagant mash-up of history and hallucinations, studded with dazzling special effects, hot dance moves and tantalizing gestures toward the historical narrative the Beatles formed and informed, a rock 'n' roll origin story that's barely in the past," the Times said.