Tag: https://www.cirquedusoleil.com/beatles-love

America, Countries, Deals, Flying, Music, Sport

When Ne-Yo gave me everything

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It always pays to be up the front which is how I came away with a prized possession when Ne-Yo gave me everything in the USA.

When I came to reach highest to grab his sweat towel just at the point when he was belting out his classic toon with Pitbull.

And yeah, picture me with a Kodak, although we had moved on from that by 2017.

And our friends from the American Travel Fair in Washington DC boomeranged us holding the precious cloth later on.

All of which memories came flooding back as news pinged in my inbox of Pitbull’s much-anticipated run in Las Vegas.

Tonight, let’s enjoy life

No sweat: Ne-Yo in Washington DC

Pitbull is taking the party to the Neon City this weekend, Friday, September 12 and Saturday, September 13.

As part of his Pitbull: Vegas After Dark The Residency.

Short notice we grant you but you might want to come back on November 21 and 22.

And a hint there for someone with that week being when I’ll have marked up six decades on this third rock from the sun.

The big ticket: Vegas top boxing

This being Vegas there’s always a fight going on with this weekend seeing Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford going at it at the Allegiant Stadium.

Although Vegas brings out the lovers not the fighters in us.

Whether that was the Beatles LOVE Cirque du Soleil at the Mirage back in the day.

Or dancing to the Whip-Its with Cami from Utah off the Strip.

The Big Fight

Spell it out: Muhammad Ali at the Hall of Excellence

Not that we don’t enjoy watching a good fight or wrapping ourselves up in boxing memorabilia, hype and thunder.

Channel your inner Muhammad Ali then at the Hall of Excellence where The Greatest’s boxing gloves are on display.

Along with Tiger Woods’ golf ball from his first Masters win, Olympic gold medals and all seven of Tom Brady’s championship rings.

Take a self-guided tour, narrated by such voices as Oprah Winfrey, Bob Costas, our old pal from Huntington Beach Snoop Dogg, and Morgan Freeman.

Think outside the box

In her shoes: The ruby slippers at the Sphere

If, of course, its showmanship you’re after follow the yellow brick road to the newest experience at Sphere for a mind-bending showing of The Wizard of Oz.

Which is expanded to fit the 360°, 16k definition screen.

You’ll be wrapped in colour and movement as seats rumble while you feel cool breezes and the sweet scent of poppies fills the air.

And we got a whiff of how much fun these shows are from taking in Shrek at Universal Studios in Orlando.

Before the show, take photos with the giant ruby slippers installation outside.

Also, during Canelo-Crawford weekend, you can catch the Eagles live as the legendary rockers continue their residency. 

And because we always try to fly out of Ireland because, well because, but also its preclearance.
 
Aer Lingus flies nonstop from Dublin with fares starting at €206.61 each way.
 
America, Countries

The Mirage in Vegas was all a dream

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Farewell to one of the great fixtures on The Strip but for me The Mirage in Vegas was all a dream. From which I woke up but felt I was still hallucinating.

No, not from a trip on the Strip but the effects of the jet lag from the flight from Dublin.

Move over Frank: The Rat Pack sign

In my defence I wasn’t the only one who nodded off during the Cirque du Soleil Beatles Love show.

With veteran of Vegas and the travel scene, Gerry Benson, also in slumber during the show.

Of course the Cirque du Soliel show was an acrobatic and musical assault on the senses and prepared me well for Neon City.

Eruption of joy

There she goes: The Mirage

The Strip, or Las Vegas Boulevard, is like no other stretch of entertainment real estate.

And gives new meaning to the term ‘keeping up with the Joneses’.

Particularly when you have to compete with Sphinxes, Eiffel Towers and gondolas.

But the Mirage fair held its own with its $30million volcano spewing out ‘lava’ in hourly eruptions since 1989.

Oh craps: On the tables

All of which we witnessed from our hotel The Venetian across the Strip.

Where gondoliers plied their trade on the Grand Canal and under the Rialto Bridge.

Vegas can be a bit of a blur and that probably means that you’re doing it right.

Bridging the continents

Glamour set: Miss America meets Mr Scotland in Vegas

And so following the Beatles Love show I decided to take 40 winks in my room only to be woken by a call saying I was expected for the group dinner downstairs.

And so groggy and on autodrive I stumbled my way past the Grand Canal and into a fresco-filled room in the Venetian.

Who needs hallucinogens when you have these alternate universes all around you.

Sadly, now The Mirage is to be replaced by a Hard Rock and some of the magic will be lost.

Neon Museum is a blinder

Signs of the times: At the Neon Museum with Beverley

Not that it will be lost for ever with the lettering and fixtures probably being rehoused now in the lovingly preserved Neon Museum.

Where Beverley Saperstein guided us around the lot where old Vegas resorts and their signs go to rest.

No resting though for Beverley, then voted Vegas’s Senior Citizen of the Year.

All dangly Liberace earrings, given to her by the great showman.

So next time we’re back we’ll be expecting to see a new addition at the Neon Museum.

The Mirage in Vegas was all a dream. But one I lived through… or so I was told.

 

 

America, Countries, Culture, Europe, Ireland, Music, UK

Rainydays and Songdays – the American musical

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Give my regards to Broadway, Remember me to Herald Square, Tell all the gang at Forty-Second Street, that I will soon be there.

Because it’s come to my notice that they’re making a movie out of Hamilton for release next year and we’ve been binge-watching musicals during lockdown.

I’m taking a Yankee Doodle Dandy dander through the American musical with a stop-off in London’s West End and Dublin’s Theatreland too.

Come all: Come From Away. www.broadway.com

Away, away, away, away

Come From Away: Which is all visitors coming into North America anyway.

These ones, of course, were the 38 planeloads who had to land in the small Newfoundland town of Dander after 9/11.

And found out a lot more about each other as I did when I saw it in Denver.

We all come from far away and have become friends over the years at IPW, the American Travel Fair, who bring the best of Broadway to whichever town is in town.

And here’s one from the show worth coming for…. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p8JI70eXjG8.

Peak form? Wicked. https://www.wickedthemusical.co.uk/

Wicked stuff

And this one cones to you from Dublin and New York and Oz.

Which is, of course, the thing about musicals, they transform you to other lands.

Dublin was where Disney on Broadway invited us to take in Wicked.

But if you can’t get to the show this will warm your heart up… https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HEnQY_66GZc

She’s all heart: The Carole King Musical. www.broadwaydirect.com

King of London City

Beautiful – The Carole King Musical: I felt the earth move when I caught the story of the greatest female songwriter of all time in London.

And that was just from my kids holding an unsanctioned party back in Greystones in Co. Wicklow in Ireland.

And our next-door neighbour texting us to tell us they had called the Gardai

Didn’t stop me throwing shapes though. It could wait until I got home before I threw my weight around!

And Carole.., What a natural woman!

All you need is…, Las Vegas. www.cirquedesoleil.com

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE

The Beatles LOVE: And this being Cirque de Soleil you just know it will be an interactive experience.

With trapeze artists and dancers twirling about… Vegas, baby!

All to the background of Liverpool‘s finest, the Fab Four.

And you’ll be lucky and see a guy in the sky with diamonds (or sequins at least).

Of course, the best musical is the one about a half-Scottish New Yorker who made good and led his country to great things.

This is my pick from the various productions out there.