All Shook Up

‘All Shook Up’ provides a vehicle for a musical based around the music of Elvis. A heart-warming tale about broken dreams, opening up to love, and the power of music. A small mid-western town is thrown into a frenzy with the arrival of Chad, a hip swivelling, guitar strumming rebel, who sets up making drastic changes to the, until now, repressed town.

Chad (Grant Duffus) makes his character known from his first appearance, and rarely leaves the stage after that. His lip-curling Presley-esque persona works well and continues unabated throughout. His character is well matched by Natalie (Lauren Smith) who falls for him, but apparently makes a better impression when disguised as “Ed” the motor cycle mechanic. Lauren played this character in a very assured and assertive manner. Chad and Natalie’s duets were particularly poignant, whilst Natalie’s performance as Ed (dropping her voice a few octaves) was extremely well portrayed. The rather awkward and nerdy, lovesick Dennis (Brodie Reid) did his best trying (and failing miserably) to announce his love for Natalie, however, her main rival for his affections is the librarian Miss Sandra, superbly played by Rebecca Goldie. Natalie’s widowed father, Jim (Jonathan Cammidge) displays a fine singing voice and also falls for the attractive Miss Sandra,, but is to find in the end that his true love is café owner, Sylvia (Michelle McLean). Michelle gave us an excellent rendition of “There’s Always Me” in the second act.

I enjoyed Susan Kibbs’ acting as the domineering Mayor Matilda Hyde responsible for enforcing prohibitive laws on acceptable behaviour in the town. However, she did finally show a more tender side to her character. Susan's performance of Devil In Disguise brought much amusement to the audience tonight. Her son, Dean, (Alex Baillie) was very much dominated by his mother, but became ever more confident in declaring his love for Lorraine delightfully played by Mhairi Morrison. Andrew Butchart was the somewhat hapless and timid Sheriff Earl, always walking two steps behind Mayor Hyde, until, eventually he snaps and gives her a taste of her own medicine! This was particularly enjoyed by the audience, since we had not heard him speak for the first part of the show.

The GAMA chorus, whilst a bit light on men, sang and danced well throughout.

Costumes were good and appropriate for the period. Set wise, a video wall was the main element, with small set pieces added in some scenes. This did tend to leave a large, wide open stage which, in my opinion would have benefitted from some more scenic pieces.

Lighting and sound were both well designed and operated.

Congratulations to MD Peter Robinson and his twelve piece orchestra which never succeeded in overpowering the cast.

Thank you GAMA for an enjoyable evening.

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