It’s amusing to ponder what the Twenty-somethings are thinking if they see All Shook Up!. It opened Thursday at the Muny. Certainly the story, which is very, very loosely based on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, talking about love among the young (and even the not-so-young) might appeal to them. But how does the music of five decades or so in the past translate? Because this is the music of Elvis Presley.
It’s hard to equate Presley with, say, the Beatles, to move forward in time, or Frank Sinatra, to move backwards. Sinatra sang, and helped create, the Great American Songbook. The Beatles wrote and recorded songs that have become standards. Presley…well, he’s given partial authorship credit on a number of these songs, although I don’t know if that’s one of those things that his manager “Colonel” Tom Parker, manipulated in order to increase Presley’s (and thus Parker’s) income. (That was common in the first years of rock ‘n roll.) But there are many songs that are so identifiable with Presley that, even if they were covered by other artists – or began with someone else, like Carl Perkins and “Blue Suede Shoes” – they are his. Much of the score of All Shook Up is those songs. Do they fit? Does a show that combines Presley and Shakespeare fly?
Danged if it doesn’t work pretty well.
The action occurs in a small Midwestern town in the summer of 1955. A young man named Chad (Tim Rogan) appears on a motorcycle, which is not running well. The town’s motorcycle mechanic is the teenaged Natalie (Caroline Bowman), who is gobsmacked by the newcomer. She’s been oblivious to her nerdy buddy Dennis (Barrett Riggins), who’s clearly wild about her, but about to leave for college without declaring himself. Her widowed father (Lara Teeter) often drops by the local cafe/roadhouse run by Sylvia (Liz Mikel), whose daughter Lorraine (Ciara Alyse Harris) is a pal of Natalie’s. And then there’s the busybody wealthy mayor (Hollis Resnik) who’s busy enforcing her idea of moral leadership. (We seem to be having a run of those women on local stages this year.) She ships her teenaged son Dean (Paul Schwensen) off to military school, so she has plenty of time to tell everyone else how sinful they’d be were it not for her.
Rock and roll must inflame passion, according to the mayor – and it certainly seems to be doing that here. Even the newly-arrived museum curator (Felicia Finley), the sexy version of a librarian, is sizzling. There’s lots of sighing and eyeing and teasing and flirting, but things are mostly quite family-friendly.
Happily, the score uses arrangements that are close to the originals, which makes it more fun for folks who are familiar with them. Purists (I know who you are!), though, will express dismay that these are shortened versions. The voices are good, and Rogan doesn’t even begin to try to approximate The King’s sound. I particularly liked the “Teddy Bear/Hound Dog” medley with Rogan, Finley, Riggins and Bowman. It’s also fun to watch Lara Teeter, who’s choreographed so much around town, back on stage playing a dad and dancing in dad clothes.
As to the acting – well, if you can sell sexual chemistry far enough away that it can be sensed in a venue the size of the Muny, you must be doing something right. There’s plenty of it with all the young ‘uns, and even Finley, the sizzling curator, who appears a decade or so older than them, exudes it.
Despite a couple of tech problems opening night when mics weren’t working, the visuals are a delight. Director Dan Knechtges’ vision of the show gives us more of a 360-degree experience than we usually get at the Muny, like the motorcycle roaring down one of the side ramps. Luke Cantarella’s sets, particularly the amusement park, are particularly wonderful, and the video screen is a significant contributor to things. John Lasiter’s lights accentuate it all.
This is not a show for the ages, there’s no question about that. But it’s different than most of the jukebox musicals, which so often lapse into the “And then I wrote…” school of storytelling. It’s a fun evening.
All Shook Up
Through July 19
The Muny
Forest Park