Music Various Artists Book Jack Good
Ray Cooney | Lyrics Various Artists Playwrights Ray Cooney, Jack Good | |
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Basis The life and music of Elvis Presley Productions 1977 West End
1996 West End Similar Ray Cooney plays, Other plays | ||
Elvis is a jukebox musical based upon the life of Elvis Presley, conceived and directed by Jack Good and Ray Cooney. It tells the story of Elvis Presley's life and career, from the beginning until his death. The original cast included Shakin' Stevens, who later became the top-selling UK singles artist of the 1980s and Tracey Ullman.
Contents
1977 production
The original West End production opened on November 28, 1977 at the Astoria Theatre in London which had been converted from being a Cinema especially for the show by Laurie Marsh. Elvis was portrayed by four actors over the course of its run: Tim Whitnall as Elvis in his early years; Shakin' Stevens as Elvis in his army and movie star years; and PJ Proby as Elvis in his Las Vegas years, and later was played by Bogdan Kominowski. Live musical accompaniment was provided by the rock and roll revival group, Fumble. Overthefootlights.co.uk records that it played for 614 performances [1] which would indicate that the show closed in late April 1979. (This can be confirmed by the fact that many of the cast went on to perform in the 1979 revival of Grease which previewed at the Bristol Hippodrome in May 1979). The show later went on for a National Tour
Production team
Cast
Musicians
1996 production
In 1996, Bill Kenwright Ltd mounted a modified production at the Prince Of Wales Theatre, directed by Keith Strachan and Carole Todd. PJ Proby returned as Las Vegas Elvis, Tim Whitnall as mid-period Elvis, and Alexander Bar joined them as young Elvis. Various song changes were made to the initial 1977 production. After transferring to the Piccadilly Theatre in 1997, the show toured the UK until 2000.