Aug. 20 marks the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ first concert in Las Vegas and, believe it or not, the Fab Four is still innovating, still changing, still surprising after all these years. Their spirit lives on through The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil, which is not so much of a look back at the greatest hits of the band but more of what show director Dominic Champagne has called a “rock ‘n’ roll poem.”

The music itself is reason enough for any Beatles fan to see this show at The Mirage. Instead of using a live band, as can be found at many of Vegas’ Cirque shows, it uses the original Beatles songs as the foundation of the show.

Cirque du Soleil didn’t just pull out tracks they thought would tell the story. They asked Beatles producer Sir George Martin and his son Giles Martin to remix well-known tracks from the original masters at Abbey Road Studios and come up with an entirely new soundtrack. Songs were pulled apart and reassembled, sometimes taking a drumbeat from one track and adding it to another. Ringo Starr even noted that his original vocals were added to “Octopus’s Garden,” giving the song a new depth. For the opening of LOVE, Cirque du Soleil made The Beatles’ final show on a rooftop in Savile Row in 1969 the centerpiece, with “Get Back.”

It’s the music of The Beatles that inspires the imagery of Cirque du Soleil. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr are rarely seen during the show, only portrayed as four young scamps who flit through scenes. But they’re certainly represented throughout. Each act uses four main characters throughout the 30 or so songs. Just as “Get Back” marks the end of the foursome’s career together, the story moves to post-war Liverpool and “Eleanor Rigby” picking her way through the rubble, replete with images of the four lads as youth.

The band’s psychedelic era comes back to life in parades with “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and a hallucinogenic trip through “Strawberry Fields Forever.” Even a fictional conversation between the bandmates, using original tracks from Abbey Road, is constructed via a shadow puppet show.

Then it’s Beatlemania coming to life with “Help!” and four madcap in-line skaters flipping, jumping and turning off 11-foot ramps. The frenzy of the media swarms the audience with Russian swing artists twirling over the crowd to the sounds of “Cry Baby Cry,” intermingled with sound effects from “Good Morning, Good Morning” and laughter from “Piggies.” Madness.

Contrasting the highs and lows of The Beatles’ career comes slower songs such as “Something” with a male dancer tempted by four seductresses who fly around him just out of his reach. The audience even becomes part of the show when an enormous sheet envelops the crowd during “Within You Without You.”

Indeed, Love is the music of The Beatles brought to life by the imagery of Cirque du Soleil.

The Mirage, 7 & 9:30 p.m. Thurs.-Mon., $79-$180 plus tax and fee. 702.792.7777