The combination is as incongruous as a yellow submarine: a revolutionary rock band, a stilt-walker's creation, and a casino.

This, folks, is that ever-evolving experience known as Las Vegas.

A Cirque du Soleil show based on Beatles songs will preview at the Mirage casino resort on Friday, marking the first time the corporate overseer of the group's music will be a partner in an outside production.

It will also be something new for Cirque, founded by street performer-turned-zillionaire impresario Guy Laliberte — its visual and kinetic acts sharing equal billing with an auditory partner. (Two weeks ago, Cirque also agreed to produce shows with Elvis Presley's music and likeness.)

In fact, it may be the sounds of the show, titled "Love," rather than the sights that will be the star. But that remains to be seen, or heard.

The fifth resident Cirque show on the Strip is expected to attract about 2,000 customers per show, at $69 to $150 a ticket.

The Cirque-Beatles production will assume the former space of the hugely popular Siegfried and Roy show, closed since 2003 when Roy Horn was severely injured during a performance by one of his white tigers, Montecore.

Set in a theater-in-the-round, "Love" will feature more than 24 Beatles songs, accompanied by Cirque's convergence of acrobatics, aerial artistry and dance, Mirage president Scott Sibella said

The project was conceived because of Laliberte's friendship with the late George Harrison and has been at least four years in the making. The show will be staged at a cost of about $150 million, almost a quarter of what it took to build the hotel-casino.

The show has the blessing of the two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr; John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono; and Harrison's widow, Olivia Harrison. McCartney and Starr will not perform. Instead, the audience will hear original Beatles tracks, which the show's creators promise will have an unparalleled fidelity.

"I think we will achieve a real sense of drama with the music," Giles Martin, son of the group's producer, George Martin, said in a release. "The audience will feel as though they are actually in the theater with the band."

The audience will also hear snippets of conversation among the Beatles, creating a sense of intimacy and immediacy, Sibella said.

There will be preview performances, discounted 25 percent, through most of June. Regular performances, will begin July 2, at 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.; the show is dark Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

For the Mirage, the show is part of the transformation started last year to regain its status as a trendsetter on the Strip.

The 1989 opening of the casino with the erupting volcano inspired a wave of construction and different approaches to entertaining guests. But many of the casinos that followed the Mirage, including its sister property the Bellagio, the Venetian and the Wynn Las Vegas, have surpassed it.

"Over the years, no one has ever said anything bad about the Mirage. It's always been considered a classy resort," Sibella said. "But with all the new places, it didn't feel new itself."

Beginning last year and continuing through 2007, the Mirage is adding and renovating restaurants, cocktail lounges, a nightclub — even the exploding faux volcano out front. Rooms are due to be refreshed next year.

The new restaurants are Stack, Fin and Japonais.

Stack is described as an American bistro and a cousin to the Bellagio's Fix. The food could be described as gourmet snack, such as appetizers of three mini Kobe chili-cheese dogs ($15), tableside-prepared sliced sirloin ($14), and traditional steak entrees ($32-$44).

Fin is an upscale Chinese restaurant, and Japonais offers a mix of Japanese and European cuisine.

The Mirage joined the Las Vegas rush to create trendy dance clubs with its own, called Jet. The club is separated into three rooms — the main room with a dance floor and house music, and two smaller spaces where the sound could be anything from rock to reggae.

In the works are a wine bar in the hotel's Italian restaurant, Onda, and a lounge named Revolution, themed to the Beatles show. Both will offer settings where customers can talk without competing with a DJ.

The pool area, which was updated a couple of years ago, is still one of Vegas' best, which is why it is often crowded and sometimes frenetic. To relieve the congestion, the Mirage will offer private swimming areas that are either reserved for guests or charge an admission.

Beginning in July, a new adult pool called Bare will charge $20 and be open to all hotel guests, although it will be relatively cozy, accommodating about 300 people. As the name implies, European sunbathing, meaning topless, will be an option.