Everything about “Love” is done in service to the Beatles; there’s not a single moment in which a visual element overrides the audio. It’s Cirque trying to find a new pace that responds to the music, meaning measured movements on ropes in one scene, zippy skateboarders in another. The rope climbers and bungee jumpers seen in Cirque shows are present; the balancing acts, clowns and aerial daredevils are not.
The star is the Beatles, and the point is driven home when superbly edited footage of the Fab Four is shown during the closer, “All You Need Is Love.” The band’s producer George Martin and his son Giles have taken a “mash-up” approach to the Beatles music, overlapping rhythm tracks from one song onto the melody of another, squeezing incidental background noises from three or four tunes into the coda of another and even segueing from a demo of a song into its final version. The reworking of the tunes reveals a richness, depth and pliability that reinforces their place atop the rock ‘n’ roll canon.
