I have to admit, when I saw “The Beatles Love” at the Mirage, I wasn’t in the mood for love. I was alone in Vegas on a “working” vacation and although I appreciate the Beatles music and their irreplaceable contribution to music and politics, I was afraid to see and hear what would happen when their incredible songs were translated into a full length Vegas production. Well, with Cirque Du Soleil’s Dominic Champagne, Gilles Ste-Croix and Chantal Tremblay at the helm, I needn’t have worried.

The most difficult task of all, re-orchestrating and re-mixing their music was done with such abundant love and creativity by Sir George Martin and his son Giles and then broadcast to the audience with the most incredibly powerful sound system with such force and precision that I can honestly say you will never hear their music sound as dynamic or as fresh as it does here in the “Love” theater.

Although this Cirque production has it’s share of exciting acrobatics and feats of daring like the synchronized in line skaters effortlessly navigating half pipes, or the performers on trampolines who gracefully defy gravity, the main focus of this Cirque show falls squarely on the shoulders of the beauty and strength of it’s dancers and dance itself, as it should.

You don’t often get to see pure modern dance and ballet flowing in this way without the interruption of stunts or spectacles to overshadow the mind-blowing poetry of the trained human body in all its glory. Two great examples of this are in the overwhelmingly sexy, romantic dance numbers of “Something” and “Come Together.” Instead of casting the tall, lanky showgirl type dancers, or an abundance of overly athletic acrobats, “Love” has wisely been cast with genuine petite, youthful Balanchine style dancers, and ballerinas, delicate and full of expression with strong American thighs that perfectly convey eternal youth in motion and the true spirit of sixties freedom and rebellion.

I dislike when reviewers try to describe the amazing special effects and light and set changes that occur in any Cirque show, simply because when you anticipate them as an audience member, it lessens the impact. I will just say that there are so many wonderful eye popping effects going on visually, so rich in color, detail and light, so many fantastic costumes in every number, that you can not possibly take it all in and will say to yourself, I have to see this again, even as the show is unfolding.

My favorite music from the Beatles has to be the songs they created when in the period of experimenting with psychedelic drugs like marijuana and LSD. I feared that this production would “clean up” or “family friendly” the songs too much and lose that spectacular feeling of psychedelic mind expansion and transcendence of the boundaries time and space in music that the Beatles pioneered. Again, I needn’t have worried. At the opening, in a discrete nod to this fact about the Beatles, a few dancers quietly walk the stage as the lead dancer swings a smoking lamp past their faces, like the ones used in churches and the show begins… taking the audience on a magnificent spiritually musical, and visually psychedelic journey that is naturally intoxicating.

Everything about this production shines with the same great humor, lightness of heart

and unique genius that the Beatles themselves conveyed throughout their careers.

It doesn’t matter if you are in the mood for love when you enter the theater because by the time you leave it you will be filled with the joyful feeling that “Love” is truly, all you need.

For more information on “Love” visit www.mirage.com.