A Town Full of Elvis

All Shook Up. Orange County Performing Arts Center. 5/31/06.

All Shook Up is a goofy little musical and it isn't exactly good, but it is fun. I actually enjoyed it. It's the story of a random small, boring town in the 1950s (which is, mysteriously, VERY integrated racially). Everyone's sad and bored until an Elvis-like rock and roll musician rides up on his motorcycle. He brings music, love, and excitement to the town and everyone goes a little crazy with the excitement. Hijinks ensue.

This play didn't exactly have an original plot - it was sort of Footloose meets Bye Bye Birdie meets As You Like It. But it was fun nonetheless. It started out slowly with "Jailhouse Rock" and "Heartbreak Hotel" before the plot really started, so those two songs didn't make a lot of sense or seem particularly relavant. But once the "Roustabout" rode into town, the integration of the Elvis songs with the plot was actually pretty interesting. And I even enjoyed the weird musical theater arrangements of the Elvis songs. It's interesting to see them adapt Elvis's music for a large black woman, an older 'unhip' white man, and a Buddy Holly-like sidekick.

My biggest problem with the show was the As You Like It plot in which the heroine does drag to get closer to the boy. Up until that point, I kind of like the heroine. She was a tomboyish motorcycle mechanic who never wears a dress. And I appreciate that putting on the dress didn't automatically get her the guy. But, her attempt to pass as a guy was, easily, the worst drag I've ever seen. It included a profoundly ugly hunting hat and soot on her face to imitate a 5 o'clock shadow. It was hideous. Why couldn't they have given her a haircut like Triumph of Love or even a wig? The fact that I had to watch her in that outfit for half the play made me actively angry. Why couldn't they have made her look like a cute little baby dyke? At first I thought it was homophobia - musn't have our lead appear at all unfeminine, but there was an absoultely brilliant unhomophobic plot twist at the end, so why appear so stupid at the beginning? Grrr.

Other than a few pet peeves, though, I actually really enjoyed this show. It may be my own current interest in retro nostalgia, but I thought this was a fabulous glorification of a loosening of the boundaries of race, sex, and gender through rock music in the late 1950s. While not exactly historically accurate, it's a fun idea nonetheless.