All Shook Up

“All Shook Up “is an American jukebox musical featuring the music and songs of Elvis Presley from a book by Joe Di Pietro, it is also loosely based on William Shakespeare’s play “Twelfth Night”. The show is set in a small midwestern town in 1950s America where the inhabitants are living under an inhibiting decency proclamation instituted by the Mayor. It was first performed in Chicago in December 2004 and then had it’s Broadway premier in March 2005. 

Performed on a nearly empty stage  apart from the excellent supportive orchestra situated on stage at the back which was led by Musical Director Charles Moss. Scenes were set by using blocks initiatively along with props such as an impressive motorbike, there were also some preset trucks which were moved on and off stage easily,which all worked very well resulting in smooth scene changes which help keep the pace of the show just right. The story centres on Chad a guitar playing drifter who has just been released from prison and has arrived in town needing someone to fix his motorbike.He is introduced to Natalie a Mechanic who works at her widowed Father’s garage, she dreams that one day she will fall in love with someone who will take her away on an adventure. Natalie instantly falls in love with Chad who unfortunately isn’t interested in her, so she quickly devises a plan hoping it will make him fall in love with her, but she does not realise that her best friend Dennis is secretly in love with her with the result that confusion ensues, until finally everything ends happily.This story includes a character cross-dressing as a disguise, mistaken identity and romance, as Chad helps the town discover the magic of falling in love and the power of rock & role.

Directed by Les Gomersall ,who had at his disposal a talented cast who gave outstanding strong performances all round producing some lovely characters. It has been great pleasure to see these young people developed their skills and blossom into excellent performers over the years, they included  Matthew Higginson in the  central role of  drifter and musician Chad with Eden Birch as Chads love interest, mechanic Natalie/Ed. Her father Jim Haller was Gabriel Cardiera and there was the lovely singing voice of Amanda Murphy as Sylvia the owner of the the local bar, who’s daughter Lorraine was played by Hannah Ridehalgh, with Tom Corcoran as her boyfriend Dean Hyde. Natalie‘s best friend Dennis was played by Ben Ankers and librarian and blonde bombshell Miss Sandra was Natasha Major. The moralistic Mayor Matilda Hyde was played by Ashleigh Hetherington while her sidekick the diminutive Sheriff Earl was Harry Corcoran who nearly brought the house down after not speaking and appearing downtrodden throughout the show, suddenly became very assertive  giving a speech at the end of the show, putting Matilda Hyde in her place. The young chorus performed the dynamic excellent choreography by Jenny Birch expertly with lots of energy, supporting principal cast very well.Everyone on stage appeared to be really enjoying themselves giving their all.

Costumes were just right for the production and there was very good technical input, which all helped in the success of this dynamic very energetic feel good  production.
Congratulations  to all involved in bringing this outstanding show to the stage which was most defiantly enjoyed by the audience.Thank you very much for inviting us we had a great time.     

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.