All Shook Up, the Elvis Presley musical
by Roxie Theatre Company
Jan. 15 (2017)
All Shook Up is a 2004 American jukebox musical with Elvis Presley music and with a book by Joe DiPietro. The story is based on William Shakespeare's 1602 play Twelfth Night.
-- Wikipedia
from Theatremania review by David Finkle, March 24, 2005: The phrase "all shook up," which Elvis Presley put into the language with his 1957 hit record, isn't an anagram of the name "Shakespeare," but Joe DiPietro apparently thinks it's close enough. Perhaps having noticed the linguistic relationship of "shake" and "shook," librettist DiPietro decided to mine the Bard's plays when he was asked to turn the ever-hot Elvis Presley songbook into the jukebox musical All Shook Up. (He took the term "jukebox musical" so to heart that he has included an actual jukebox in the tuner's shake-a-tail-feather action, and David Rockwell has incorporated a vintage beauty in his endlessly clever set design.)
Faced with the daunting challenge of providing a storyline to accommodate 25 Presley-anointed ditties with some semblance of logic -- logic being a loose term these musical-comedy days -- DiPietro turned to the Shakespeare comedies Twelfth Night and As You Like It, wherein women dress up as men to woo the guys they desire and love letters are sent by way of go-betweens. Obviously on a roll, DiPietro also threw in references to the tragedies Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, and to the notion of music being the food of love.
Then, in a continuing fit of lifting from other sources, DiPietro -- who's still raking in the shekels from his long-running, international cash cow I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change -- helped himself to bits and pieces of Footloose, Bye Bye Birdie, Mamma Mia!, and even the Arthur Laurents-Stephen Sondheim musical Anyone Can Whistle, whose villain is a mayoress. But, hey, Shakespeare himself was only too pleased to raid previous works for helpful ideas. We should also keep in mind the old remark about there being only seven plots in all of literature. DiPietro may be doing nothing worse than paying homage to already successful and sorta-successful entities. The question is whether he's merely shaken the ingredients that he's gathered or whether what he's done is shakin'. It's a bit of both.
JANUARY 15, 2017, 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm
ROXIE THEATRE
Sing a song of your choice.
Those auditioning are asked to come prepared to sing 32 bars of music in the style of the show that will best display their vocal ability. An accompanist will be provided. Additionally, those auditioning will be asked to read cold from the script during the initial audition. The directors will spend around 5 to 10 minutes with each individual performer at this initial audition.
Auditions will consist of:
Music (Bring sheet music)
Choreography (Wear comfortable clothes/shoes)
Cold Readings
PRODUCTION INFORMATION
SHOWTiME(s)/Date: February 18 thru March 19; Fridays at 8 pm; Saturdays at 7:30 pm; Sunday at 3 pm (14 Performances)
The production will play on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings and Saturday and Sunday afternoons opening on February 2017. Rehearsals will usually take place Monday thru Friday evenings and Saturday mornings till opening.
TIME: A 24-hour period, during the summer of 1955
PLACE: A small you-never-heard-of-it town somewhere in the Midwest
Characters:
NATALIE HALLER (Alto – Early 20’s Alto G—D): a mechanic.
CHAD (Baritone/Tenor A(1oct. below Middle C) – A (in a solo): a great-lookin’, motorcycling, guitar-playing, leather-jacketed roustabout.
JIM HALLER (Baritone – mid 40’s-50’s Baritone Bb—E): Natalie’s widowed father.
SYLVIA (Belt – mid 40’s II Alto to II Sop.(Huge range) Low F—High G): the no-nonsense, African-American owner of SYLVIA’S HONKY-TONK.
LORRAINE: (Belt Alto Mid. C—D) Sylvia’s 16 year-old daughter.
DENNIS: (Tenor High 1st Tenor Mid A—Ab) a young, awkward, aspiring dentist.
MISS SANDRA: (Alto High Alto Mid. A—E) the beautiful, intellectual caretaker of the town’s museum.
MAYOR MATILDA HYDE (Alto – mid 40’s-50’s I Sop. Mid. Bb—High C): the town’s conservative mayor.
DEAN HYDE: (Tenor 1st Tenor F—high Bb (must be strong)) Matilda’s 16 year-old son. He has grown up at a military boarding school.
SHERIFF EARL (Baritone – mid 40’s-50’s): the law in town. A man of not many words.
ENSEMBLE: strong, heavily used singing and dancing townspeople, etc…
Musical Numbers:
ACT I
• Overture – Orchestra
• Love Me Tender – Natalie, Dennis
• Heartbreak Hotel – Dennis, Sylvia, Lorraine, Jim Haller, & Ensemble
• Roustabout – Chad
• One Night With You – Natalie
• C’mon Everybody – Chad, Company
• Follow That Dream – Chad, Natalie
• Teddy Bear/Hound Dog – Chad, Miss Sandra, Dennis, Natalie
• Teddy Bear Dance
• That’s All Right – Chad, Dennis, Lorraine, Dean Hyde, Sylvia, Ensemble
• (You’re the) Devil in Disguise – Mayor Matilda, Ensemble with Dean Hyde
• It’s Now or Never – Dean Hyde, Lorraine & Ensemble
• Blue Suede Shoes – Natalie, Chad, & Ensmble
• Don’t Be Cruel – Chad, Jim Haller
• Let Yourself Go – Miss Sandra, Ensemble
• I Can’t Help Falling in Love – Sylvia, Dennis, Miss Sandra, Chad, Jim Haller, Natalie, Lorraine, Dean Hyde, Ensemble
ACT II
• All Shook Up – Chad, Natalie, Jim Haller, Dennis, Dean Hyde, Sylvia, Miss Sandra, Lorraine & Ensemble
• It Hurts Me – Dennis & Ensemble
• A Little Less Conversation – Natalie, Ensemble with Chad
• The Power of My Love – Chad, Jim Haller, Miss Sandra
• I Don’t Want To – Chad
• Jailhouse Rock – Chad & Ensemble with soloists
• There’s Always Me – Sylvia
• If I Can Dream – Chad, Lorraine, Dean Hyde & Ensemble
• Fools Fall in Love – Natalie & Company
• Burning Love – Chad, Miss Sandra, Dennis, Sheriff Earl, Mayor Matilda, Sylvia, Jim Haller, Dean Hyde, Lorraine, Natalie & Ensemble
• C’mon Everybody – (Encore) – Chad & Company
