The Beatles Join The Circus

All you need is Love, the newest show by Montreal-based Cirque Du Soleil, which features the music of The Beatles.

Love marks the first time that Apple Corporation, which protects The Beatles' musical legacy, has signed on for a large-scale theatrical partnership.

The show will begin previews at The Mirage in Las Vegas on June 2 and will officially premiere on July 1 in a new custom-built theatre that will feature 360-degree seating and high-definition video projections of 30-metre moving images.

The idea for the show stemmed from talks between Cirque founder Guy Laliberte and George Harrison in the late '90s. The idea was first announced in 2004 and, since then, Beatles producer George Martin and his son Giles have helped shape the show and musical score by going through The Beatles' archives and master tapes at Abbey Road Studios in London, England.

"We wanted to make sure there are enough good, solid hit songs in the show, but we don't want it to be a catalog of 'best of's,'" says Martin on the Cirque website. "We also wanted to put in some interesting and not well-known Beatles music and use fragments of songs."

The show will feature an international cast of 60 players in "aerial performance, extreme sports and urban, freestyle dance." Quebec playwright Dominic Champagne, who previously directed the Cirque's touring production of Varakai and directed and co-wrote the company's Zumanity show, wrote and directed Love.

Love will replace Siegfried and Roy's long-running magic show, which ended in October 2003 after Roy Horn was attacked by one of his white tigers.

Apple will release an album through EMI to accompany the Love live show later this year.

Cirque broke ground at Tokyo's Disneyland complex on Tuesday that will become its first permanent Asian venue when it's expected to be completed in 2008.