NOT one but three versions of Elvis Presley strut their stuff, if you'll pardon an appropriate archaism, in the musical biography with the unimaginative title of Elvis the Musical which opened at the Gaiety last night. They represent, or imitate, the young middle and mature stages of the rock `n' roll legend, and between them get through a substantial wedge of the numbers for which their principal is still worshipped some 20 years after his death.
The biographical thread is thinly drawn through the sketchy narrative to which the songs are attached. Film projections against a stage wide backdrop pin down moments of some relevance parallel events, the film roles, the spell in the army, Las Vegas nights, and so on. But all that really matter are the songs, belted out by the energetic trio with a handful of musicians, backing singers and players of bit parts. There is no attempt at drama or dialogue, and no examination of the Presley character. Towards the end, a dramatic effusion of My Way is a bathetic cop out from the sad and sordid reality.
Imitation is the name of this game. Each of the three leads, Andy Romano, Fergus Moriarty and Michael Dimitri, looks somewhat like Elvis and sings in something approximating to his style, although one has only to close the eyes and listen to measure the gulf that lies between them and their subject. They are reasonably acrobatic, but never come close to those manic gyrations which once galvanised audiences. It would be unrealistic to expect again that lost charisma, but one might hope that the spirit of the iconoclastic star and his times might be caught somehow. Not so, alas.
What is on sale here is nostalgia, a force to which I have been known to succumb to an uncritical extent. That did not happen for me on this outing, but a sizeable proportion of the audience obviously complemented the stage happenings with their own imaginative recreations. A lively pot pourri of songs towards the end, with all three Elvises in full co-operation, had people swaying in their seats and rocking in the aisles. Viewed as an extended sing along, the show clearly has its merits. But, as musical tributes go, this one is a fairly low flying affair.
