Beatles survivors and widows approve Cirque du Soleil Beatles show

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

The Beatles team with Cirque du Soleil
New Vegas show will replace Siegfried & Roy

http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Music/10/14/beatles.cirque.reut/index.html

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Only in Las Vegas: Beatles songs, as portrayed by the acrobatic troupe Cirque du Soleil, will replace animal training duo Siegfried and Roy at one of the city's biggest tourist theaters, according to a deal announced on Thursday.

Characters from Beatles songs like "Eleanor Rigby," "Nowhere Man" and "I am the Walrus" will be featured in the $30 million show about the Beatles' life in the 1960s, said Gilles Ste-Croix, the Cirque du Soleil vice president of creation in charge of the project.

The show marks a musical first: the Beatles have never before allowed a major theatrical performance of their music, but surviving members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr as well as Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison, the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison have approved the deal.

The show will take the place of the magic and animal taming duo Siegfried & Roy, in a new, roughly $100 million, theater at the Mirage casino on the Las Vegas Strip, Montreal-based Cirque said.

[saracat]

1. Maybe itis just me, but I am sorry to see this. It sounds tacky to me.

I remember John and Paul both saying the Beatles could never compete with their own legend and that is one reason they didn't perform again. It is really a shame this is a Vegas venue. Their memory deserves more respect. This makes it all about money.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

2. I agree, I think the legacy should stand on its own

Until things like "The Beatles Anthology," "Live at the BBC," and "Let It Be: Naked" appeared after Lennon (and later Harrison) passing away, he music and films always formed a nice, self-contained, self-explanatory body of work.

I still take great comfort in the fact that, even though he was ASKED to, Charles Schulz refused to let Charlie Brown "finally" kick the football at the end of the "Peanuts" comic strip run. McCartney and Starr could take a lesson from that.