‘I just want to say hi’: Paul McCartney, on impromptu Mirage visit
Paul McCartney just wanted to say hello (hello, hello).
With no agenda, plan or directions, Sir Paul ventured to Love Theater at the Mirage at about 2 p.m. Saturday. He and his small group approached the side stage entrance and met a security guard.
McCartney said he just wanted to walk inside. But he had no badge identifying himself as a hotel or production official. It wasn’t clear if the security official on duty readily recognized him.
That’s when Sasha Harrington arrived.
Harrington is an authorized Cirque du Soleil artist, an aerialist in “Love” and — in that moment — impromptu tour guide for a living legend.
Harrington showed up at the theater early to get in some “physio,” or strength training, about five hours before the first “Love” performance. She was on her phone as she walked toward the stage-door entrance.
Harrington, a 10-year cast member who performs the aerial silk number to “A Day in the Life,” happened upon a small group trying to access theater.
“I saw this older man and a few other people talking to security, saying, ‘Oh, we just want to go in and say hi.’ And as I got closer I was like, ‘OK, he looks like Paul McCartney,’” Harrington said Wednesday in a phone chat. “Then took his sunglasses off, and I was like, ‘Oh my God!’ That’s definitely Paul McCartney!’”
Harrington had been on the phone, and the conversation fell off immediately when she realized what she’d walked into.
“Apparently, I didn’t even hang up the phone,” she said. “It was super random. I went over, and I just assumed he had a meeting with somebody. I asked, ‘Where do you need to go?’ I’ll take you there.’”
“‘I don’t know, I just wanted to walk around and say, ‘Hi,’” McCartney answered, in Harrington’s description. “I’m not here to see anyone in particular. I want to say hi to everybody.”
But nobody from the cast was in the theater.
“Well, let’s go to the stage,” Harrington said. “I”ll show you that. Not like he hadn’t been there before, but I didn’t know what else to do.”
The two posed for photos to mark the occasion and carry McCartney’s greeting to the Cirque family.
“He said, ‘I want to do something acrobatic with you,’ so we posed that way,” Harrington said. “I just said, ‘Thank you!’ Because, what am I supposed to say after that? Like, ‘Hey, everybody, Paul McCartney was just here, but there’s no evidence.’”
Harrington considers herself a serious Beatles fan.
“It was exciting, especially to be in a casual environment like that,” Harrington said. “He just wanted to swing by his theater that was built for what he created and to stop by. Then he was like, ‘All right! Gotta go!’ It was surreal. I’ll never forget it.”
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.
