Canadians get ahold of Beatles, exact revenge.

I won free tickets to All Together Now, a documentary about the mash up of Cirque Du Soleil and Beatles music that had a one evening only preview at Highland 10 theater last night.
Now, I'm old enough to still be in recovery over the casting of George Burns as “Mr. Kite” and the scarring sight of the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton in those pastel silk Military costumes wincing their way through Golden Slumbers in the late 1970’s movie version of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Plus, I confess that I have no desire to see music I don’t remember not knowing and liking augmented with bubbles, mimes, spandex, and parachute play.
The movie insists that the genesis for the project was a meeting between George Harrison and Guy Laliberte, founder and head Muppet-humper over at Cirque Du Soleil. Apparently George felt the time was right to combine these two cultural forces for a visual/aural extravaganza. Ringo is also seen in the movie singing the praises of “the Cirque,” which he says he first saw a “long time ago in a tent in California”. One can only assume this may have been before he stopped imbibing.
I also considered that George had been involved with several Monty Python productions and films so maybe he was just having a laugh. Then sadly, George died and the whole thing got lifted up as a tribute and general force of nature.

I started a joke, indeed.

The documentary starts THREE HUNDRED DAYS before the actual opening night. The rehearsals take place in Montreal and part of the fun is watching the creative team squirm as the “big boys” come around to touch the taffeta and generally look stern over the importance of a clear meaning being conveyed by scores of twenty-year-olds flopping earnestly around to a song John Lennon wrote about a poster he bought when he was tripping 40 years ago. (read: this thing has gotta make bank, kids!)

There are Mighty Wind-worthy moments like the one where Yoko winds up and tears into the director about the “vulgarity” of a mob of multicultural half-naked actor-bats rolling around in their underwear to interpret the tune Come Together. I wondered incredulously as the poor guy tries to defend himself with no cup if he had ever seen the Let It Be movie where our little Miss Avant-Garde artist tries to take over the recording of a rock n roll album and leaves even Paulie looking haggard and miserable.

I did find myself thrilled, however, when the classy, quiet, but stealthily persistent Olivia Harrison, George’s widow, defended her husband’s legacy. It’s not hard to picture her clocking that delusional intruder over the head with a lamp when he broke into the house she shared with George, already sick with cancer, in 2000.

The moments between famed Beatles producer/arranger Sir George Martin and his son Giles, who assumed the bulk of musical direction for this show, were informative and touching. Whenever Mr.Martin chooses to let any memories or tales about his time recording the Beatles flow in that honeyed, upper class Brit timbre, I am putty. He shared a few previously unknown gems like the fact that John told him shortly before his death that he would like the opportunity to re- record every song they’d ever done together—especially (!) Strawberry Fields Forever. Hmmmm.

The centerpiece of the film for me was a scene at Air Studios in London where a new string accompaniment for an alternate take of While My Guitar Gently Weeps is being conducted and recorded by Mr. Martin and his son. Witnessing George’s beautiful old hands caress this music in what he clearly states in his last working session—coming full circle and retiring on the strains of the same music he helped bring to the world. That scene almost makes up for the Mop Tops-go-Mummenschanz vibe that will probably keep me away from the Vegas Strip but which makes this a good rental for anyone interested in candid moments featuring Neil Aspinall, Beatles wives and kids, hotties in unitards and some guy named Paul McCartney who at one point in the documentary states simply that the and John never took longer than three hours to write a song and that he believes they had a “knack” for it.

The DVD of All Together Now is out today and apparently available only at Best Buy. I hope John and George are up there sharing a bowl and having a hoot.