All Shook Up

All Shook Up
Inspired by and featuring the songs of Elvis Presley. Book by Joe DiPietro. Harlequin Musical Theatre. Director/Choreographer: Susanne Dell Musical Director: Lynnette Leggett. Harlequin Theatre, Pakuranga, Auckland, NZ. November 17 – December 1, 2012.

Inspired by and featuring the songs of Elvis Presley with book by Joe DiPietro (I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change) All Shook Up,with a story line close to Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, with its employment of star-crossed lovers, mistaken sexual identity and such is setin Smalltown, USA circa 1955. The townsfolk’s  humdrum existence is rocked when Chad “a rolling roustabout with a song in his soul and an eye for the ladies” rambles into town on his motorcycle, wearing his leather jacket with his guitar slung over his back. However, emotions are a many with its deliciously cheesy story that goes: Dennis (Quintin Anderson), the town nerd, loves grease monkey Natalie (Hannah Reid), who loves Chad (Craig Bleakley), who’s fallen for the museum curator, Miss Sandra (Alice Armitt), who’s a sucker for men spouting sonnets, but not forJim (Sam Iosefo), the man who pines for her. Then there’s Sylvia (Deborah Lind) who has a thing for Jim. Oh, and don’t forget the puritanical Lady Mayor (Angela Gill) whose son Dean(Chris Wardle) has the effrontery to fall in love with Lorraine (Alexandra Foster) a girl from ‘the other side of the tracks’ and the sheriff (John Moloney) who also finds someone quite arresting.  Unrequited love between all these characters makes for amusing complications, leading to a predictable but satisfying conclusion.

Susanne Dell’s production boasts some stand out performances including Quintin Anderson, who wasfantastic as poindexter Dennis, stealing the show both physically and vocally with a well-developed and believably character. Craig Bleakley (and his hyper-active hips) who may have struggled with some of the vocal complexities, inhabited the role of Chadthe roustabout with consistent energy and enthusiasm. Hannah Reid as the cross dressing grease-monkey heroine Natalie / Edwas bright and charming and Alexandra Foster as Lorraine showed her vocal ‘chops’ with her knock-out voice and is definitely one to watch out for in the future.

With a good balance between story and song - with numbers ranging from the well-known to the obscure – under the musical direction of Lynette Leggett, the onstage band was a treat for an Elvis fan with rousing trumpet flares and saxophone runs. However, the band’s enthusiasm and gusto was disappointingly not matched by the 20-plus ensemble who were often lacklustre during what had the potential to be huge vocally dynamic numbers. 

Like in any live theatre technical issues can happen and at this evening’s performance the overall execution was hindered by the sound balance between vocal and band often leading to many lyrics and dialogue getting lost in the mix especially in the first act; the poor execution of scene-changes prohibiting the well-designed functional set by Adey Ramsel to work its magic and let the show flow un-interrupted by the vast number of required scenes changes.

So if you’re looking for a night of light entertainment with some great toe taping numbers, Harlequins production of All Shook Up guarantees that your entire family will be jumpin’ out of their blue suede shoes!

Emma Bishop

Photos by Rose Jackson

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