This show is just so much fun. Set to the music of Elvis Presley, it’s traditionally described as James Dean meets Shakespeare (specifically Twelfth Night and A Midsummer’s Night Dream) and it’s a very enjoyable romantic jukebox musical.
I have no complaints about any of the performances. I get to hate old people again because there’s one song that takes place in a “statue garden” and then it breaks into this musical number and the statues move about (they’re really people). The audience decided to applaud for the statues after their first movement. I GOTTA stop going to matinées….
There was also a really weird 4th wall break that happened midway through the second act….Chad (the Elvis/James Dean character) says something and a group of people behind and to the left of me (rear house left) shouted/screamed an affirmative answer and he broke the wall to go, “Yeah!” It was odd…but not horrible?
The cast was actually quite star studded. Bets Malone played Natalie (the lead girl who falls for Chad) and did a wonderful job. Natalie’s father, Jim, was played by the actor who played Doody in the movie version of Grease. It was interesting for me because when I saw the national tour his character was a balding, overweight mechanic and having him become “cool” was much more amusing than this time around. You can also tell that Doody is a dancer, because he moves very well for his age. And John Massey Jr. stepped in as Sheriff Earl, the town mayor’s enforcer. It was mildly amusing seeing such a talented actor play that role with the think pilot glasses and the Midwest officer-of -the-law uniform, but I didn’t double over with laughter when I saw him…maybe I expected too much? Who knows.
All in all, a very enjoyable production that I’m glad I saw.
Have we hit the prescribed three deaths to make the famous people start dying for a while? With Dave Stevens and the Black Lagoon creature obit I think we have…unless he doesn’t count in favor of Heath Ledger…sigh