All Shook Up

A thin plot but not without tangled stories of unrequited love, all stitched together with 25 Elvis tunes, some famous, others not so famous, turning this into a foot tapping, clap along, sing a long show. There was no scenery as such but cleverly positioned lights made the lighting design all important. The use of ‘One Night With You’ with its lighting, for the ‘love at first sight’ moments, was inspired. 

Ben Smyth as Chad got the show off to a great start with the classic ’Jailhouse Rock’ and this continued with a great performance from him throughout . I was very impressed with Caroline Ferguson (Natalie/Ed) who delivered a polished performance together with a great singing voice and sense of comic timing. Richard Howard won every ones heart as the lovesick Dennis trying, but failing to announce his love for Natalie who, in turn, had fallen for Chad. Her main rival for his affections is Astra Beadle so well cast as Miss Sandra, the smoldering  libarian-type museum curator. Natalie’s father Jim (Jimmy Weighell ) also falls for Miss Sandra and he tries to emulate Chad but in the end finds that Sylvia, (well played by Beth Harding) the Honky-Tonk owner is really his true love. The young lovers Lorraine (Rachel Gerring) and Dean Hyde (Matt Kneller) worked well together and overcame their parents wrath, especially his mother, the pseudo moralistic, Mayor Matilda Hyde (Estelle Burfoot-Reed) who kept up her sour face throughout. She got her come-uppance when Sherriff Earl (Gordon Harris – not usually a man of few words!) silenced her. 

Finally, congratulations to director Richard Burfoot-Reed for another good production, all the leads were excellent, the singing and the choreography by Rebecca Beaumont was brilliant. There was such enjoyment and energy from all the cast that it was bound to rub off on the audience, who showed their obvious appreciation at the end.   

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