..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

LAS VEGAS – When George Martin was producing the albums of the Beatles, way back in the ’60s, he relied on tape, sprockets, razors and glue to make the Fab Four’s myriad musical instincts come together in a seamless tapestry of sound. And, the limits of analog technology could barely contain their collective imagination.

Forty years later, as co-musical directors of the new Cirque du Soleil production, “Love,” Martin and his son, Giles, have transported the Beatles and their music into the digital age. In doing so, they’ve created an impressive new catalogue of music.

“The first thing we did for ‘Love’ was transfer absolutely every sound we’d ever had of the Beatles onto hard discs and manipulate the sound digitally,” said Martin, a.k.a. Sir George, at a media preview held last week in the Mirage resort’s spectacular new theater. “That’s how we’ve been able to do things that would have been quite impossible years ago. The only newly produced material you’ll hear is a song I created as a memorial to George Harrison … otherwise, it’s all 40-year-old stuff. ”

Sir George, who’s 80 and a bit hard of hearing, gives Giles all the credit for leading him into the 21st Century.

Even though the Beatles songbook has never grown stale or gone out of fashion, “Love” required a soundtrack that was fresh and unexpected. Using digital editing systems, Giles was able to quickly identify pieces of music from the original taped recordings – long takes and short bursts, alike -- and move them from one track to another with the sweep of a cursor. They could fiddle with it as much as they felt was necessary to create a whole new magical mystery tour for Cirque’s creative team.

“Back in the ’60s, we recorded in mono and stereo, and used all sorts of different devices, which created some problems,” Martin added. “A guitar riff might have been recorded on the same mono track as the piano, making it difficult for Giles to separate them for the new material. He’d get frustrated and say, ‘Dad, why did you do that?’

“But, it was the way things were done. No one could see this far into the future.”

An understanding of the complexity of the Martins’ mission is a prerequisite of any discussion of “Love,” which now is in previews.

Seeing the words “Beatles” and “Cirque” on the same giant marquee outside the Mirage might suggest to potential ticket buyers that tiny Chinese acrobats will play Chutes & Ladders to the accompaniment of “Helter Skelter,” and baggy-pants clowns will lipsynch the lyrics to “Yellow Submarine.” And, in Las Vegas, Cirque probably could get away with presenting just such a New Age tribute show.

Nope. The 15-minute preview left reporters anxious to see and hear more of the show – still, officially, a work in progress – knowing they’re likely to have as much fun deciphering the musical re-constructions, as they will watching the Cirque cast work its usual magic for 90 minutes on the Chinese box of a stage.

As it was, the snippets of sound that were showcased for the media were at once familiar and completely foreign. Brief instrumental riffs from any one of several possible sources became bridges to longer songs. Indeed, some of the material from the vaults of Apple Corps had never been heard outside the recording or rehearsal studios.

Even hardcore Beatles fans will scratch their heads at some of the hybrid music.

For example, for “Love,” the instrumental track from “Tomorrow Never Knows” was married to Harrison’s voice track from “Within You Without You,” and it sounded as if they were made for each other.” The opening of “Good Night” was used to introduce “Octopus' Garden,” which also had been migrated from the key of D to E.

“I played the songs for Paul, and he was stunned,” Sir George allowed. “He asked why we hadn’t done it that way in the first place. The only thing Paul thought was too far out was the reggae version of ‘Let It Be’ I played for him as a joke.”

To borrow a phrase from the world of hip-hop, the Martins basically had “sampled” bits and pieces of 130 songs, in order to create a "panorama of sound, a soundscape that will last for 90 minutes."

To fill the 360-degree theater with digitally precise sound, 12,000 individual speakers were installed throughout the facility, including on the seatbacks of chairs. It will accompany interpretations of the music by the cast of 60 dancers, acrobats, stilt-walkers and clowns … the one and only Billy Shears, even.

Above the primary bank of seats, on opposite sides of the theater, two giant screens will provide a visual accompaniment to the music and Cirque performances. The intended effect is to immerse the audience in what amounts to a multi-dimensional music video.

At the preview, a real-life Lucy swung from a trapeze in a diamond-filled sky, while jellyfish floated through an octopus’ garden. “Lady Madonna” required a group of tap dancers to slosh through the rain in high yellow boots.

Retrofitting the former home of Siegfried & Roy cost something in the neighborhood of $120 million, with the Cirque end of the show pegged at $30 million. Considering that “Mystere” has been a staple of the Las Vegas scene for a dozen years, the MGM Mirage see “Love” as a long-term investment.

The concept behind the show began to take shape four years ago, when Guy Laliberté and Harrison used a party held at the Cirque founder’s Montreal home to as an excuse to share ideas. They would continue their discussions, in London, during strolls through the guitarist’s gardens.

After a tiger nearly killed Roy Horn during an “S&R” performance, MGM Mirage management began the search for a big-ticket show to fill the 2,000-seat space. Naturally, the company turned to Cirque for concepts. As “Love” was already in the formulation stage, it provided an easy solution to the problem.

Harrison didn’t live long enough to see the project through to fruition, but it’s gotten the approval and input of McCartney, Ringo Starr, Harrison’s widow, Olivia, and John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono.

“Love,” more than any other of the troupe’s productions, has been a collaborative effort … as much Cirque as it is Apple Corps. Like Cirque’s just-announced touring “Elvis” project, it will be minus the company’s trademark New Age music and live band.

If this news disappoints Cirque fans, well, they’ll just have to learn to live with it. Beatles loyalists, on the other hand, will be on the lookout for the soundtrack album, which will be released sometime around Christmas and effectively become the first new collection of Beatles music to hit the street in decades.

For more information, see www.cirquedusoleil.com; www.thebeatles.com; or www.mirage.com.

June 2, 2006

- Gary Dretzka

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