Show Review: Love at the Mirage

I saw Love on June 5th, during its previews. The show was very good, and I expect that they will improve some things through the course of previews. The official opening is July 1st.

The first neat thing you will experience when you go to the show is the staff. The ushers and ticket-takers are costumed in Sgt. Pepper’ish outfits. The women are in very mod blue dresses with bonnets and the men are in red band uniforms. Many of them were being pulled aside before and after the show for photo ops. Once in the theater there are some preshow antics, but I didn’t notice anyone being led astray or pulled onstage. It was very audience friendly.

There is a little storyline for this show. It follows one guy trying to get the girl. At the beginning, 4 guys arrive onstage with flowers. During the first number 4 girls also arrive, but 2 of the girls run off with 1 guy, leaving our hopeful hero by himself. This storyline does seem to disappear at times, but the show does end with the conclusion of that story.

Unlike the previous Cirque shows I have experienced (and I’ve seen all of the ones in Vegas), there was no live music. It is all highly remixed versions of the Beatles recordings. Even with the remixing, most of the songs are still very familiar and recognizable. Some of the remixing includes backwards vocals and taking the drum track from one song and using it for another. You can tell that George Martin and his son Giles Martin had a lot of fun with this project. The one exception to the prerecorded music was ‘Blackbird’. It was done as a spoken word piece while 4 performers fly and crash in blackbird costumes. It is a nice little bit of comedy.

The sound system is as incredible as you might expect and they have incorporated speakers into the headrests of each seat again (like they did for ‘Ka’). The set is fairly typical of the other Cirque shows in that it is basically a blank stage with lots of trap doors, moving sections and curtains. Sheer curtains fly in and out from time to time to be used as projection surfaces. There is also a permanent projection surface above the back row of sections 200-202 and 207-209. Many elements rise from beneath the stage. They have some of the typical acrobatic contraptions like springboards, but they also add 2 skating half-pipes for a very good rollerblading piece.

The projections were a major part of the show; perhaps too big a part. From my vantage point, cutting half of the projections would have helped the show. There were occasions where I was wondering why we were being shown some of the projections instead of having something happening onstage. I began to dread seeing the projection surfaces fly in. In retrospect, however, I think that some of this was due to the location of my seat. I did not have a great view of either of the permanent projection screens and if I was watching a projection, I couldn’t watch the live performers on stage.

My seat was in Section 305. It was obvious that even though the show is done with arena seating, it was only staged for 2 sides. I can be fairly certain that none of the artistic team sat in Section 305 during tech. In addition to the problem seeing some of the projections, there were a few occasions where a piece of scenery would be blocking a bit of the action.

I will be seeing the show again in September. This time my seats are in the front row of Section 203 which is a bit better. For the best overall view, you will want to be in sections 101, 102, 107, 108, 200, 201, 202, 207, 208, or 209. The other ‘100’ sections should be OK since you are close to the stage, but I would avoid the ‘300s’ if possible.

Take Care,
Mark