All Shook Up: Fifties Flavoured Fun and Frivolity

Deliciously cheesy, 2005's All Shook Up would meet Sam G's (The G in movie company MGM) approval.  Goldwyn, a Polish immigrant to the USA, was famous for mangling English idiom.  When he gropwled, "What we need are some new cliches", this piece of frivolity probably wasn't what he had in mind - but close.

In a plot loosely (very!) derived from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, a leather-clad, motorcycle-riding, rock 'n' rollin' roustabout turns up in a small hick town, and to the music of Elvis Presley, turns things inside out.

Chad, played by Andrew Jamieson, combines The fonz from Happy Days and Danny from Grease, setting local female hearts a-flutter, including that of tomboy mechanic, Natalie Haller, played by Edan Hunt.

But Chad, along with Natalie's father Jim, becomes infatuated with art museum curator Miss Sandra.  To complicate matters, sharp-tongued Sylviacarries a torch for Jim.  Her daughter Lorraine has her sights set on Dean, son of Matilda, the uptight, fun-killing mayor, while nerdy Dennis harbours a passion for Natalie.  Oh, the tangled web of emotion!

To get close to Chad, Natalie dresses as Ed, another bike-riding greaser.  Reluctantly, on Chad's behalf, she delivers a Shakespearean sonnet to 
Miss Sandra, who promptly falls in love with the messenger.  What on earth is in the water?

All Shook Up doesn't take things too seriously, delightfully sending itself up - along with the wider musical theatre genre - accompanied by artfully arranged and placed Elvis songs, and nifty choreography.  The only line missing was, "Where did that music come from"? as the characters break into yet another stylish song and dance routine from the Presley canon.  The loud pre-recorded backing music itself was hard to miss, at times clamouring other vocals and portions of dialogue.

Chad is the sort of role Jamieson can do blindfolded, but while Hunt has a gorgeous voice and female presence, she's just a tad transparent as a bloke = needs a beard.  Liam Taylor's lame-duck Dennis is perfectly pitched, and there is excellent support from Erica Ward as Sylvia, Bruce Sinclair's (ZZ Top refugee) Jim, and Carrie Green as Lorraine.

The decorative sliding door scene-setters are a clever feature of a well co-ordinated, effervescent, fun-filled production that should tighten considerably.