The musical reputation of The Beatles LOVE is peerless. What other Las Vegas Strip production show boasts a customized soundtrack that has tallied three Grammy Awards? It’s difficult to believe today that when Cirque du Soleil and Apple Corps, the Beatles’ production company, teamed up to create and launch LOVE in 2006, their hopeful claim that it would run for a decade in Las Vegas was met with skepticism and even doubt. Twelve years later, it is nothing less than an institution on the Strip and around the world, one of the most popular productions in the city’s legendary entertainment history.
The iconic and beloved catalog of Beatles music has always been the foundation of the show and we’re all familiar with these songs. What you might not know is that the LOVE theater is built to be the best possible audio environment to consume those songs, and that ambitious claim comes straight from the band, their late producer Sir George Martin and his son Giles Martin.
It’s well-documented that the LOVE soundtrack is a different way to experience the Beatles. George Martin layered “Get Back,” “Twist and Shout,” “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “Come Together” and everything in between with various sonic parts and pieces from other songs to create a singular sound collage for the show. For example, the LOVE version of “Drive My Car” contains a saxophone track from “Savoy Truffle” from the Beatles’ 1968 White Album and a guitar solo borrowed from “Taxman,” the opener from 1966’s Revolver.
But that approach is just the beginning of the creative genius of Martin, the great arranger, composer and engineer dubbed “the Fifth Beatle,” and his son Giles, who has taken up the mixing mantle since his father’s passing in 2016. That same year, the show unveiled a muscular revamp focused on the musical experience. The 2,013-seat theater-in-the-round—the biggest venue of all Cirque productions on the Strip—updated the audio system to include 6,400 new speakers, including two in the headrest of each seat. Below the theater in the playback room, where the LOVE team deftly manages the music and all audio cues throughout the show, there’s a replica of one of the recording studios at Abbey Road in London, where the band recorded nearly all of their albums from 1962 to 1970. Before every show, those in-house engineers check every area to confirm the purest sound is available for everyone in the audience, and there’s even a mobile speaker setup for ticketholders who take in the show from a wheelchair.
And about that show refresh from a couple of years ago: It wasn’t just about adding new and innovative technology to the venue. The Martins remixed all 32 songs and segments in the show, truly starting from scratch—track by track, using only the original Beatles tapes. That’s why the show’s audio team believes this warm, welcoming theater at The Mirage on the Las Vegas Strip is the purest place in the world to listen to the Beatles’ music; there’s only one layer of production, that unique Martin mix, between the band’s original recordings and the audience’s ears.
You already know what a wonderful, resonant experience awaits at The Beatles LOVE. Now you know why.
The Mirage, 7 & 9:30 p.m. Tues.-Sat., additional 7 p.m. show Feb. 4, $79-$180 plus tax and fee. 702.792.7777
