This could
be as close as you could ever get to seeing Elvis on stage, Steve Michaels is
an international award-winning tribute artist who has played alongside Elvis’
iconic bandmates, including D J Fontana and Jerry Scheff. He is about the best
you can get so it is obvious why he was chosen for this new musical from Bill
Kenwright.
With 40
tracks crammed into the show there is little space left for a story, which is
why the story only focuses on a small part of his life. Act One opens in the
NBC Studios just before the famous Comeback Special broadcast in 1969 and it
ends at The Showroom of the International Hotel, Las Vegas.
During the
first act we see the insecure side of Elvis, he is avoiding calls from Priscilla,
keeping away from his manager and feels that he may have had his day it would
help if he had a Liverpudlian accent. The musical highlight for me during the
first act was Bridge Over Troubled Water.
The second
act is just pure music from start to finish with some great hits including In
The Ghetto, Burning Love, Suspicious Minds and Jailhouse Rock. The audience
loved it especially two audience members who spent most of the second act
dancing discreetly at the side of the auditorium. At one point he truly became
Elvis. It was just a shame that many other audience members felt it was
acceptable to talk loudly or use mobiles to film or photograph part of the
show.
For me this
is not a musical in the way we think of musicals, as the story wasn’t the
strongest element, the music however, thanks to Elvis and Steve Michaels, makes
it an enjoyable nights entertainment.
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