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Beatles' legacy revived with "Love" show

— PHOTO: AP

Paul McCartney at the premier of The Beatles "LOVE" in Las Vegas on Friday.

LAS VEGAS: It was Beatlemania all over again. Flashes popped and hundreds of fans screamed as Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr walked the red carpet for the opening performance of ``Love,'' a surrealisitc portrayal of the Fab Four's career performed by Cirque du Soleil.

Friday's event at the retooled Siegfried & Roy Theatre at The Mirage hotel chronicles a deconstructed musical trip through the Beatles' past.

``It was emotional because two of us aren't there,'' Mr. Starr said after the show. ``So it really comes home when you're watching this.'' Mr. McCartney avoided reporters but emerged onstage after the performance. ``This is for John and George!'' he yelled.

John Lennon's wife Yoko Ono, wearing a large white hat and matching pantsuit, drew loud cheers from fans. ``All this time when I was working on this show in the rehearsals, I thought `Oh, John should be here,' That's the only thing that I regret, the fact that he's not here because he would have enjoyed it so much,'' Ms. Ono said. Olivia Harrison, wife of George Harrison, spoke over her shoulder as she was whisked past a crowd. ``I hope he [George] would like it.''

``Love'' is a dance and acrobatic spectacle filled with characters from their songs — the walrus, Lady Madonna, Sgt. Pepper — and set to a soundscape made of parts of songs, outtakes and fragments of sound that are sure to please fans and at the same time leave them full of questions. ``John? Who knows about John,'' said George Martin, the Beatles' longtime producer about John Lennon, who was shot and killed on Dec. 8, 1980. ``If he saw the show, he'd probably say, `Yeah, but it could be better,''' said Martin, who worked with his son, Giles Martin, to create the 90-minute show's soundscape. ``John was never satisfied with anything that he ever did in his life. In his mind, he had a dream world which could not be realised.''

In ``Love,'' the Beatles' dream world does appear onstage.

The performance explodes early at the hotel-casino's $130 million, 2,013-seat theatre in the round with ``Get Back,'' the band's 1969 hit, as dancers and acrobats jump and twirl in the air.

Set to blended, reversed and enhanced parts of 130 songs and unpublished outtakes, the show takes the audience through World War II, the 1960s era of ``Beatlemania,'' the band's reclusive studio years and a psychedelic time that produced songs such as ``Strawberry Fields Forever'' and ``Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.'' — AP

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