Goodbye ALL SHOOK UP (3/24 - 9/25)- Page 30

[liotte]

Posted: 9/30/05 at 12:06am

Me too said in the way that Miss Sandra replies to Chad's "But I really liked Ed!" "Meeeee tooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Oh sadness. At least I can see her in Hairspray soon.

[kate2]

Posted: 9/30/05 at 8:31pm

eeee! i love leah!

[WholeLottaShakin]

Posted: 11/8/05 at 11:31pm

Sorry, couldn't help but bring this thread back. :)

Go see HAIRSPRAY this weekend, fellow ASU fans! Michelle Kittrell's going on as "Amber" and it's the last weekend Leah Hocking's in as "Velma" until December (according to BwayWorld).
News on Michelle Kittrell

[liotte]

Posted: 11/8/05 at 11:38pm

Sure, count me in! :)

[BroadwayBaby6]

Posted: 11/8/05 at 11:40pm

It's an amazing cast...and it's a really fun show...A great night in the theatre.

[WholeLottaShakin]

Posted: 11/8/05 at 11:58pm

Twist your arm, right, liotte? :)

Posted: 9/26/06 at 1:01pm

I honored the day by listening to ASU's cast recording on my IPOD and almost watched my bootleg, but fell asleep.

"I'm so glad I came here tonight!"--- Slyvia.

ASU you were the spurkplug that made my engine go PURRR.

[bwayondabrain]

Posted: 9/26/06 at 1:34pm

that is quite sad...closed a year ago yesterday
it was fun while it lasted
i didnt do anything to honor it though
shame on me
oh, but i talked to my sister about the show yesterday...yeah

[liotte]

Posted: 9/26/06 at 2:10pm

Though I will miss the OBC, I am very excited to see the show in Boston this weekend!

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 9/26/06 at 3:39pm

Liotte, I'm seeing it in Boston this weekend, too! I'm taking my dad and grandmother to the Saturday matinee, since they're both huge Elvis fans. When will you be there?

[liotte]

Posted: 9/26/06 at 5:05pm

I will be at ASU on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 9/26/06 at 8:33pm

I wish it well.

But can you believe our little Lorraine is now DOROTHY in THW WIZ!

Woo!

[liotte]

Posted: 9/26/06 at 8:34pm

I'd love to see Nikki in The Wiz!!! NIKKI- BRING IT TO NY!!!

Posted: 9/27/06 at 7:51pm

Agreed. Liotte. Agreed.

The cast of ASU is everywhere.
I watched part of it last night.
I teared up alittle.

Jenn in TARZAN was amazing.
Cheyenne needs to get his butt back on Broadway now that his movie is over.

[liotte]

Posted: 9/28/06 at 1:49am

So let's hear a review of Boston!!

[Flaunt It]

Posted: 9/28/06 at 6:06am

The Boston reviews are HARSH!!! I loved this show in NYC. Don't know if I will see it in Boston this weekend.

BOSTON GLOBE
Shaken, not stirred by Presley 'musical'

By Louise Kennedy, Globe Staff | September 28, 2006

It's in a theater. It has music. That doesn't make it musical theater.

What ``All Shook Up" is, instead, is a couple of hours of songs once sung by Elvis Presley, now loosely stitched together into something vaguely resembling a story and sung by other, less famous people. One of those people, in the touring version that opened last night at the Opera House, is Susan Anton.

Anton looks as if she has stepped into the show's 1955 setting straight from her '70s heyday, with her long blond hair nearly as stiff as her posture. She also seems to have brought her own costumes: While everyone else is in tight jeans or circle skirts, she wears an assortment of skintight sweaters and a bizarrely poufy pink dress that should go back to whatever disco it came from.

OK, now that we've got the scary parts out of the way, you should know that ``All Shook Up" does provide some entertainment. The songs are still fun, even when they're jammed into incomprehensibly irrelevant contexts, and choreographer Sergio Trujillo (fresh from ``Jersey Boys") has livened things up with some snappy dances.

So there are moments of high energy, and though they don't provide the genuine pleasure of an actual musical, they're mildly infectious. But the show is hardly the marriage of rock and Shakespeare that its book, by Joe DiPietro, would have you believe. Yes, Anton's character (mis)quotes a sonnet. Yes, the bubbly girl mechanic Natalie, engagingly played by Jenny Fellner, disguises herself as a boy. But ``Twelfth Night" it ain't. Heck, it isn't even ``Twelfth Night" as Elvis would have imagined it.

Give the King his due, though -- he knew how to pick a song. Most of the choices here hold up well, and Joe Mandragona, as the Elvisish ``roustabout" Chad who shakes up this cliched little town, does a fair job of putting some across. If it's sometimes odd to hear a whole chorus joining in, it's still pleasant enough.

But then, at the end of the first act, NaTasha Yvette Williams (as the town's barkeeper, of all things) unleashes her pure, warm, powerful voice on ``Can't Help Falling in Love," and it's enough to make you cry. Not just because it's beautiful, but because it reminds you what it can feel like to hear a real singer, conjuring up real emotion, in a real song. The chorus jumps in soon enough, and the show goes back to its plasticine nostalgic self. For that one moment, though, you could almost think you were watching a musical.

Louise Kennedy can be reached at [e-mail].

BOSTON HERALD
Ode to Elvis nothing to get shook up about
By Terry Byrne
Thursday, September 28, 2006 - Updated: 01:18 AM EST

Cashing in on the success of jukebox musicals such as “Mamma Mia” was clearly the main objective of the creative team behind “All Shook Up!”
The national tour of the musical, which opened at the Opera House last night, features songs made famous by Elvis Presley, surely a guarantee of box-office gold. There’s only one problem: the story. Writer Joe DiPietro doesn’t have one.
But that doesn’t stop anything in the first act. Within the first 10 minutes, we’ve blown through “Jailhouse Rock,” “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Roustabout” and “One Night With You.”
We’ve set up a situation where a sleepy little town where fun is forbidden gets woken up by a motorcycle rider with a song in his heart and a sneer on his face.
We’ve only got 20 more songs to go. How hard can this be?
Don’t ask. DiPietro writes himself into such a corner that he starts grasping at straws to get out: Let’s tear a page from “Hairspray” and talk about interracial relationships. We’ve already lifted the premise of “Footloose,” but let’s make it seem legit by adding something from that guy Shakespeare, he’s good for some mistaken-identity stuff.
And then, because we have no idea where we’re going, let’s tie it all up with a bunch of weddings and humiliate the leading ladies by making them wear garish white dresses that look like they were rejected by the circus.
Statuesque Susan Anton the town’s femme fatale, and she’s obviously cast because she’s, well, very tall, and very beautiful. But by accenting her height by surrounding her with smaller actors, the director also draws attention to her stiffness on stage.
This touring production boasts some pretty scenery and very sharp choreography, but few of the singers are first rate. The sound in the Opera House is tinny and quite shrill; still you might not notice that our hero Chad (Joe Mandragona) seems slightly off pitch until you hear Natasha Yvette Williams.
This girl can sing, and she doesn’t need to belt it out to be heard. “There’s Always Me” is absolutely heartbreaking, and made me want to clear the stage and let her sing everything else in the show alone.
Very little is shaking in this musical mess, except maybe Elvis, shaking in his grave over what they’ve done to some great songs.

[liotte]

Posted: 9/28/06 at 9:18am

Yikes!

Then again, I didn't agree with the reviews on Broadway, so hopefully I will still love it! I guess I'll find out tomorrow!