Cirque du Soleil - The Beatles LOVE

The Making Of

The Red Carpet

The excitement was building as the first few celebrities stepped onto the red carpet. Familiar faces including Deborah Harry (Blondie), Steven Van Zandt (Bruce Springsteen, The Sopranos), Billy Crystal and Lauren Hutton hastened their way into The Mirage … for this night they were there simply as fans.

Giles Martin, son of Sir George Martin, stopped by for a quick comment: "I'm very excited by everything. It's great to be here. I'm delighted. I'd love to talk to you more but I have to go and look for my dad."

Then all of the sudden, amidst a deafening roar, the evening sky lit up like fireworks in a frenzy of flashes as Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison made their way between the velvet ropes.

John Lennon's widow was the first to appear. Friendly and relaxed, she walked slowly and calmly, stopping and answering questions at length. Olivia Harrison followed escorted by her son and Guy Laliberté, who had these few words to share: "I love to have a good time, you know, and tonight is an emotional time for me because it's the culmination of a dream that I shared with one of The Beatles, and today it's coming true, so I'm very happy. George isn't here tonight but seeing Olivia and The Beatles pay tribute to that dream touches me greatly."

Cynthia and Julian Lennon were next to make their way past the thousands of photographers' lenses. "It's a coming together of all the families, as we hadn't seen each other in so many years." said Julian before they both disappeared into the theatre.

Things heated up when Sir Paul stepped onto the red carpet as photographers and reporters did their best to get as close as possible, squeezing so hard the security ropes fell over! "Paul! Paaaul! Paaaaaul!" He did his best to accommodate the overwhelming crowd and stopped for a few questions before disappearing into the theatre.

Gilles Ste-Croix, Director of Creation, moved towards the crowd to say a few words: "Tonight we celebrate! Tonight we'll return to Savile Row as we discovered it when we went there two and a half years ago. This show is called LOVE, with good reason: the entire project radiated love, every step of the way!"

Creators and artists from the show also walked down the red carpet. Alongside Gilles were spotted Dominic Champagne, Show Concept Writer and Director, Chantal Tremblay, Associate Director of Creation, Jean Rabasse, Theatre and Set Designer and many others. You could feel the frenzy heating up one last time as Ringo made his appearance; however the legendary drummer had to go by quickly as the show was about to begin. But he kept his promise to come back to the red carpet to give his impressions after the show:

"I loved the show and I loved the music! I think the show is really exciting. I thought the effects, the people doing their stuff, the projections were great, too much, really! I thought it was very emotional; who knew a few years ago when The Beatles were just chatting to each other making those records that we could put it to such great use. And it was emotional because two of us aren't there. Overall, it's a festival of love. Peace and love."

Mathieu Hébert