When will we get an Elvis bio musical for the stage??

I recently saw Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biographical film and thought it was extremely well done. It made me wonder if there has ever been an attempt to make an Elvis bio musical, similar to that of Beautiful or Tina. If not, I think Baz should hire his moulin rouge broadway collaborators and get started on the stage adaptation of the Elvis film. Danny Burstein as the Colonel and Sam Gravitte as Elvis please!

All Shook Up wasn’t so successful on Broadway… I dunno



Though I wouldn't call All Shook Up a bio musical of Elvis. But I do see your point.

I was thinking about how well Baz's Elvis would translate to the stage. I do wonder, though –– is Elvis's voice SO iconic that it would be a distraction without it? I know there have been many bio-musicals of other iconic artists, but Elvis seems a little different (sort of like a Sinatra bio-musical). I believe Austin Butler's voice is heavily augmented by footage of the real Elvis.

I feel like Elvis had one of the easiest voices to impersonate.

Cirque du Soleil couldn’t make Elvis work in Vegas either; “Viva Elvis” didn’t last long.

I’m pretty sure the early portions of the film, it’s all Austin butler. Though, they start to blend the voices later in the film, especially the Las Vegas scenes. You can kind of tell.

I think Baz's film is very deeply theatrical and close to genius at times, but I don't really desire to see it or any more of his films translated to the stage. It's a theatrical *sensibility* applied to cinematic techniques that cannot be replicated as effectively in any other setting. And absolutely zero interest in yet another local tribute conc--sorry, Broadway bio-musical.

EDSOSLO858 said: "All Shook Up wasn’t so successful on Broadway… I dunno."

ALL SHOOK UP had zero to do with Elvis Presley. It only used his music and the characters and plot twists in the musical were inspired by William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, As You Like It.

TotallyEffed said: "Sounds like you need to brush up on the meaning of “zero to do with.”

Cheyenne Jackson may have emulated an Elvis-like persona, but his character Chad was not Elvis nor were there any elements of Elvis’ life woven into the storyline. In the same way MAMMA MIA! uses the music of ABBA but the musical itself has nothing to do with the band or their story.

Well, if they went for a show about ABBA, they must’ve been pretty disappointed

Sutton Ross said: "The movie is garbage, it's Austin that shines. Just like Rami in Bohemian Rhapsody. Elvis was such a loser in like a thousand different ways so I doubt anyone cares to see his life turned into a musical.

See: All Shook Up

"

That so-called “garbage” is Certified Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes - 78% positive critic reviews (over 300 of them) and a 94% audience score with over 5,000 people weighing in.

I haven’t seen the new Elvis movie yet, but I saw the Kurt Russell version that seems well liked. I think what’s central to the story in the Russell version is the contrast between Elvis’s public persona of glorious voice and raw charisma, and his extraordinarily dysfunctional, almost pathologically uncool reality. That’s a hard balance to strike in a stage show.

However, I can see “Walk Hard” translating well to the stage and rendering all artist biomusicals instantly obsolete.

There was a musical. ELVIS: AN AMERICAN MUSICAL that toured and did a lengthy sit in Vegas in the late 80s. Broadway was the goal but not 100% sure it got there. Johnny Seaton starred, who later played Pharaoh opposite Donny Osmond in the Livent JOSEPH tour.