THEATER REVIEW: THE BEATLES LOVE By: Faiz No comments

A scene from The Beatles LOVE. Photo credit: Richard Termine.

Yesterday and today

By Ed Rampell

As a reviewer of all things cinematic, operatic and theatrical I recently went to see a couple of shows in Las Vegas, Nevada, which is, after all, one of America’s top showcases of live entertainment. Cirque du Soleil’s The Beatles LOVE is a combination of the cinematic, operatic and theatrical -- along with the acrobatic, aerial, ballet, puppetry, projections, lighting, costuming to put Liberace to shame, and more, all presented with a circus-like panache. As soon as one gets out of the cram packed, standing room only lobby inside of the Mirage into the uniquely shaped and designed, custom-built theater in the round, with its scrims and screens for projecting 100 foot digital images upon, one has that “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” sensation of “pictur[ing] yourself in a boat on a river, With tangerine trees and marmalade skies.”

Once the show begins it’s as if “Somebody calls you… A girl with kaleidoscope eyes” as “Cellophane flowers of yellow and green, Towering over your head” draw you into a production that’s more of an experience and evocation of the Beatles, their music and philosophy, instead of a chronological, straightforward narrative of their lives and careers. Rather than a tribute band performing Beatles’ songs live, the Fab Four’s longtime producer Sir George Martin and his son Giles culled cuts from Abbey Road Studios’ master tapes which accompany the mise-en-scène of 60 performers and projections on huge front and back screens, played on a panoramic surround sound system.

The beginning references the quartet’s famous outdoor, impromptu performance on the rooftop of the Abbey Road Studio in 1969, with the Beatles belting out “Get Back” from the “Let It Be” album. But the spectacle that unfolds becomes far more than a reimagining of this plein air concert. Soon the gigantic twin screens are filled with imagery of the Battle of Britain, and for the first time it dawned upon me that the Lads from Liverpool were all children born during World War II; indeed, both Ringo Starr and John Lennon were born while the Nazis blitzed England. The Beatles LOVE made me realize that this played a huge role in their subsequent antipathy towards war and why, after he went solo, I heard John and Yoko croon that Lennon-composed anthem of the antiwar movement, “Give Peace a Chance," at a Manhattan rally in the early 1970s.

The show doesn’t shrink from other specifically political references: There’s a great flower power sequence, which leads to hippies fighting riot police as “Revolution” blares. Another one of the Beatles’ explicitly political songs, “Blackbird," is also played as clips of Dr. Martin Luther King appear onscreen and black performers take the stage.

Of course, although they were musical and lyrical avatars of their tumultuous Aquarian age, there was much more to the Beatles than countercultural politics. As the name of the show suggests, love was very much a concern expressed in the songs of these young men, and there is an exceedingly lovely conjuration of “Something” from the Abbey Road album. Female aerialists elude an earthbound male, who reaches out for them as if he’s seeking love, perfectly expressing the romantic longings of a young man in search of a partner to soothe a seething soul and end his solitude. The piece has the grace one would imagine a Nijinsky or Nureyev ballet would have had.

One of the great things about The Beatles LOVE is that along with their hits such as “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Lady Madonna” (featuring a pregnant black woman) the multimedia show includes some lesser known tunes from the Beatles’ oeuvre. Everyone knows “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” from the 1967 album of the same name, but do you remember “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite” from the same LP? This track is ideal for Cirque, which launches into full raucous circus mode in evoking this perhaps forgotten (until now!) song about a festive fair. There is also a powerful version of “A Day in the Life” (which I’ve always considered to have an apocalyptic tinge), complete with a car onstage, from the same album.

And while Sgt. Pepper’s “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” is appropriately psychedelically rendered, complete with flying trapeze artiste, I was unable to understand a number of Cirque’s visualizations and expressions of some Beatles’ numbers. After a while I picked up on the probability that the four boys who were recurring stage characters represented the Liverpool lads during their childhoods. But I couldn’t quite grasp who other characters were supposed to be. For instance, there is a recurring old lady -- is she supposed to be John’s Aunt Mimi who raised him or a version of Brecht’s Mother Courage? Much of it went over this critic’s head -- but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy all of it, even if couldn’t quite get some of it. Somehow this only enhanced the magical mystical nature of this tour through the artistry of what is arguably rock’s greatest band of all time. (Has it really been half a century this year since they stormed The Ed Sullivan Show during the British Invasion of 1964?!)

Director/writer/co-creator Dominic Champagne’s ensemble work bubbles. Lighting Designer Yves Aucoin illuminates the space, put to stellar use by theatre and set designer Jean Rabasse. Video projection designer Francis Laporte enhances the visionary ambiance of the live performance, artfully choreographed by Hansel Cereza and Dave St-Pierre, with the cast of 60 fantastically costumed by Philippe Guillotel. Above all, the Grammy Award winning soundscape rendered by George and Giles Martin, sound designer Jonathan Deans, and last but not least, by -- you know -- John, Paul, George and Ringo is nothing short of exquisite.

Overall, The Beatles LOVE is, as Harrison wrote, a “Crème tangerine and montelimar, A ginger sling with a pineapple heart” feast for the eyes and ears. Whether you’re a Beatles fan before you enter the Mirage showroom or not, as the Fab Four sang: “A splendid time is guaranteed for all” -- indeed! Never has Sin City seemed so blissful. Yeah, yeah, yeah!

The Beatles LOVE is at: The Mirage, 3400 Las Vegas Blvd South, Las Vegas, NV 89109. For info and tickets: LOVE; 702-791-7111.

      

THEATER REVIEW: CIRQUE DU SOLEIL'S TOTEM By: Faiz No comments

A scene from Cirque du Soleil's Totem.

Flying high on cultural reified

By Ed Rampell

Beholding Cirque du Soleil’s spectacle of the senses I had the sensation Dorothy had when, after being tornado-tossed from the black and white Midwest skyward, she crash lands and glimpsing the Technicolor land of Oz, gasps and says to her dog: “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore, Toto.”

Totem is one of the most challenging shows I’ve ever had to review because Cirque’s out-of-this-world lollapalooza, now under the Big Top at San Pedro, staggers the imagination and defies description. I’ve simply never seen anything quite like this colorful combination of costumed acrobatics, aerial athleticism, aural expressionism, cinematic imagery, live stagecraft verging on witchcraft, derring-do, dance and daffiness. The closest facsimile I’ve encountered is the equestrian extravaganza Odysseo by Cavalia, the psychedelic circus/cabaret production Teatro ZinZanni and Philip Glass’ operatic Einstein on the Beach.

Totem’s theater in the three quarters round is beneath a blue and yellow 66-foot-high tent-like pavilion, 167 feet in diameter called the Big Top, or le Grand Chapiteau(Cirque was created by French Canadians), that seats 2,600 gobsmacked spectators. On the oval-shaped stage is a turtle-like pod with reeds in the rear, where singers and musicians playing string, woodwind and percussion instruments lurk in a jungle-y ambiance. Upside down, with arms outstretched, the Crystal Man, in a skin tight silvery outfit and suspended from a cable, languidly, lithely descends from the Big Top’s apex towards the turtle, and its “shell” is removed. From out of the turtle’s skeletal structure, like so many clowns emerging from a Volkswagen, springs much of the cast of up to 47 performers from 15 countries. Amphibian-like performers launch into a parallel bars act, and Totem is off and running.

Two hours-plus of jaw dropping, death defying agility and mirthfulness ensue, with one intermission (complimentary Cuppies’ cupcakes and popcorn were served on the nearly-sold out opening night). There is hand balancing by a sinewy yet rubbery man atop an hourglass framed platform. Female foot jugglers twirl swathes of glittering spinning material atop their tippy toes. A Mongolian quintet precariously balances atop five elongated unicycles, unerringly tossing and juggling metallic bowls precariously perched upon their skulls.

A male-female duet enact a kind of aerial eroticism, performing a stylized Kama Sutra of sorts on a trapeze, with the greatest of ease -- and tease --  as they give the term “swingers” a whole new meaning. Ten jumpers go Cape Canaveral as they nimbly launch upwards, ever upwards, from what are called Russian bars.

As the title Totem -- which can refer to an emblem invested with spiritual significance by “primitive” people -- indicates, the Cirque show references traditional tribal cultures. This includes comical Cro-Magnon male entertainers who, among other things, have a droll bit wherein they encounter a 21^st century man with a smart phone, and as culture clash ensues all hell breaks loose. My favorite acts featured Eric Hernandez of the Lumbee tribe who, clad in stylish aboriginal apparel and so-called “war paint,” performs a rousing, age-old Hoop Dance.

In another very sensual number, through a combination of projected imagery, special effects and stagecraft wizardry Hernandez arrives via canoe and woos Shandien Larance, a female Hopi Hoop Dancer. The duet perform a rollicking roller skating routine that involves a striptease wherein Ms. Larance sheds much of her buckskins. Totem’s troupe includes at least one other North American Native, lead singer Christian Laveau, of Canada’s Huron-Wendat tribe.

Given all the controversy about the name of Washington’s NFL team, the so-called “Redskins,” I’ll leave it to others more knowledgeable than I regarding tribal customs as to how culturally “correct” and accurate these Cirque numbers (one involving skates) are. But I will say that as a general rule it is up to the people who are being depicted and identified to determine whether or not a portrayal and identification is insulting -- not up to members of the dominant majority culture and other ethnic groups. Self determination is when the self -- not outsiders -- determines how it is portrayed in public. Call it totem and taboo.

In any case, another important element of Totem are its clowns, who warm up the crowd prior to show time and then enact a series of comic skits that involve motor boats, waterskiing and other visually inventive vignettes. Along with the free floating devil-may-care athleticism above and onstage the overall sensation is one of sheer playfulness. The phenomenal Cirque du Soleil pageant epitomizes the sensibility of what another Flying Circus -- Monty Python -- used to refer to as “And now for something completely different.” Indeed. A splendid time was had by all the ladies, gentlemen and children of all ages in the enthralled, enraptured audience. Bravo!


Cirque du Soleil’s Totem is playing through Nov. 10 at Berth 46, Miner Street, the Port of Los Angeles, San Pedro, CA 90731. For tickets see: Totem