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Elvis Gives Regards to Broadway
Elvis has left the building...and is headed for Broadway.
The King of Rock 'n' Roll's estate has confirmed that a new Presley-inspired musical, All Shook Up, will debut on the Great White Way in spring 2005.
Conceived under the working title Can't Help Falling In Love and featuring a jukebox-worth of Elvis' greatest hits, All Shook Up will slip on its blue-suede shoes for a regional warmup at Goodspeed Musicals' Norma Terris Theater in Chester, Connecticut, from May 13 through June 6, a spokeswoman there confirmed.
After which, the musical will be staged in a larger city--as yet unannounced--in December before finally making the jump to Broadway.
All Shook Up will follow the blueprint of ABBA's Mamma Mia!, Queen's We Will Rock You and Billy Joel's Movin' Out, working an original story around a greatest-hits soundtrack.
Like those musicals, All Shook Up, will be neither an Elvis biography nor a straight revue of his music.
Instead, producer Jonathan Pollard told the New York Times the musical comedy will be set in the '50s and revolve around a "magical jukebox and a lady-loving leather-clad stranger" and the impact they have on a "loveless town." It will also include 20 classic Elvis tunes, from "Love Me Tender," "Heartbreak Hotel," and "Can't Help Falling In Love," to "Don't Be Cruel," "Burning Love," and, of course, "All Shook Up."
No word whether "Hound Dog," "Jailhouse Rock," or "Suspicious Minds" made the cut.
Playwright Joe DiPietro, best known for penning the long-running off-Broadway musical I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, has been hired to write the book for the show.
All Shook Up will be directed by Christopher Ashley, the Tony-nominated helmer of Rocky Horror. Among the show's principal backers: Clear Channel Entertainment, Harbor Entertainment and Miramax Films.
With a budget reportely upwards of $10 million, All Shook Up hopes to capitalize on Elvis' seemingly undying popularity.
Presley's Memphis-based Graceland pulls in an average of 600,000 fans a year. Forbes magazine crowned Elvis the top-earning dead celeb last year, with his estate took in more than $40 million largely thanks to his bestselling greatest-hits collection, Elv1s: 30 #1 Hits, and a new remix of "Rubberneckin" that was used by Toyota to sell cars. Love him tender, indeed.
Still, not every musical based on a popster's catalog is an unqualified success.
For every Mamma Mia! and Movin' Out, there are notable misses--just look at the critically reviled Taboo, the new musical that showcases tunes by '80s cross-dressing pop ingénue Boy George.
The Elvis-based musical was on the drawing board as far back as 1999, but is only now making it to the boards.
"We wanted to find a fresh way to use our music," Jack Soden, chief executive of Elvis Presley Enterprises, told CommercialAppeal.com last August. "We wanted to be conscious of Elvis but we didn't want any element of his life story in the show. Nobody with inexplicably long sideburns or in jumpsuits. Mamma Mia! wasn't about four Swedish kids. It was just a really cute book made really fun by the unique music."
Added DiPeitro: "I met with the Elvis folks and told them some of my ideas. We agreed that the show wouldn't be about Elvis; there would be no mention of him. And that's what they wanted--no Elvis imitators."
Too bad. We're certain a high-kicking line of Elvis wannabes would bring down the house.
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