All Shook Up: Toe-tapping, Rollicking Fun

Here’s a happy, rollicking end-of-year show that will set your feet tapping and keep your eyes glued to swirls of colour on stage.

While All Shook Up, directed by Steve Sayer, is not a musical about Elvis, it does feature his songs in seeking to recreate the atmosphere of small-town America in the mid 1950s.

This provides opportunities for some clever segues between action and music in a show that pays homage to both “The King” and Shakespeare.

There’s much ado about love when Chad (Andrew Jamieson), a roustabout with a song in his soul and an eye for the ladies, rumbles into town on his Harley and shakes things up.

Dennis, the town nerd, loves grease monkey Natalie, who loves Chad, who’s fallen for the museum curator, Miss Sandra, who’s a sucker for men spouting sonnets, but not for Jim, the man who pines for her.  Then there’s Sylvia who has a thing for Jim.  Oh, and don’t forget the puritanical Lady Mayor whose son has the effrontery to fall in love and the sheriff who also finds someone quite arresting.

The younger members of the cast include rising talents whose skills have been displayed recently in shows such as High School Musical and RENT – Bradford Meurk, Edan Hunt and Liam Taylor.

All again do fine work with Taylor as the town nerd with a secret crush on Natalie (Edan Hunt) turning in a particularly fine and endearing performance.

Their efforts were nicely balanced by performers such as Erica Ward (Sylvia), who brought the show alive in Act 1, and Bruce Sinclair, a veteran of Summer Shakespeare who turned in some fine harmonies with Chad and others.

Carrie Green, as Sylvia’s daughter Lorraine, turned in her now customary fine performance.

The role of Chad was well played by Andrew Jamieson who not only rocked, but impressed with Elvis’ slower, more romantic ballads.  Another “star” was the excellent choreography of Val Bolter, which helped the cast shine.

As with most first nights though, there were things that needed tightening up.  The length of some blackouts during scene changes in Act 1 was almost as annoying as the commercials that break up the action during television movies.

Sight lines from some of the front seats allow views into the wings at stage left.  The sound levels for the recorded music were a problem, too, although this might have depended on proximity to the speakers.  While the volume was spot-on for ensemble numbers, in the solos and softer mood pieces it crashed out at the same level and threatened to overpower the singers.

Then there were those pack-em-in trestle tables almost end-on to the stage, which tend to strain necks and don’t always offer the best of views.

But, all in all, All Shook Up is a great show that will only get better in its season that runs to December 20.