All You Need Is 'LOVE': 'All Together Now'

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LIVE THEATER DEPENDS on the "fourth wall" to help separate the audience from the action and heighten the illusion. But "All Together Now" — a new documentary on "LOVE," The Beatles and Cirque du Soleil collaborative show in Las Vegas — pulls back the imaginary curtain and lets viewers see the show's creative process, from its inception.

Still, "LOVE" director Dominique Champagne isn't worried about revealing some of the mystery surrounding Cirque du Soleil — or The Beatles.

"I'm happy if this movie can contribute to people understanding the creative process," he said at the film's U.S. premiere last Monday at Silverdocs' opening night. (The movie screens again June 23 at AFI Silver.) "The Beatles are such a mythology ... but in the end The Beatles were great creators. And with them and this show, we had the opportunity to re-create something again."

People constantly come to The Beatles looking for projects, but "LOVE" came from within.

"The original idea was George Harrison's," said associate producer Jonathan Clyde from Apple Corps, which handles all Beatles business. "He was the catalyst. He had a friendship with [Cirque founder] Guy Laliberte, and they discussed an idea of doing something together. Unfortunately, George died before that materialized, so he had no idea where it would end up — and neither did we when we first started talking to them."

Cirque and The Beatles pegged director Adrian Wills to document their collaboration, and "All Together Now" doesn't shy away from showing some of the tensions involved with the project, including Yoko Ono telling Champagne that his interpretation of John Lennon's "Come Together" is "sleazy." But the film doesn't dwell on these moments, either, acting more as a celebration of The Beatles — with Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney waving the pom-poms the hardest — and especially George Harrison.

The documentary does a fine job of capturing Cirque's arresting visuals, from its acrobatic dancing to its fantasy-world sets, but the real star is The Beatles' music, which is heard is enveloping 5.1 sound. Fab Four producer George Martin and his son Giles remixed and edited the songs to fit the stage show, and "All Together Now" documents the elder Martin's integral role in The Beatles and "LOVE."

"This show is George Martin's artistic testimony, in a way," Champagne said. "And the relationship he had with his son Giles in creating that show is a wonder. And that's a great contribution of this movie. It's the soul of the show, but you can't see that on stage. But you see it a lot in the movie."

» AFI Silver, 8633 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring; Mon., 7:30 p.m., $9.75.; 877-362-7849. (Silver Spring)

"All Together Now" film still, Adrian Wills and Dominique Champagne and opening night photos courtesy Silverdocs; marquee by Christopher Porter/Express