This Is Elvis – New Wimbledon Theatre & Touring

This Is Elvis continues at the New Wimbledon Theatre, London until 17 March, then on tour until 4 August 2018.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

It’s exhausting just watching Elvis-lookalike Steve Michaels gyrating and belting the guts out of 40 Presley hits in this hugely enjoyable nostalgia-fest.

How on earth he finds the energy to do this touring show twice on Wednesdays and Saturdays defies belief and whatever director Bill Kenwright is paying him, it is not enough.

The award-winning Canadian tribute artist is on stage working his butt off for all but the opening scene of this 160-minute trawl through the King’s 1968 comeback after The Beatles and Northern accents had stolen his pitch at the top of the charts.

While Elvis was making increasingly awful movies arranged by his shady and ruthless  manager Tom Parker to fuel the Colonel’s gambling habit, British bands like The Beatles and Herman’s Hermits were coining the rock‘n’roll gigs on both sides of the Atlantic.

This Is Elvis centres on the TV special concert he gave at the International Hotel in Las Vegas and Act II is a replica of that performance, with full audience participation.

It was heartwarming to see the matrons of Wimbledon jumping up and down, waving their arms about and having a jolly time. This is a show that sends a lot of people home happy and there is a lot to be said for that.

Act I is less successful but so what if the dialogue (book by Philip Norman, original story by Laurie Mansfield) is a bit wooden Nobody came expecting Arthur Miller or Eugene O’Neill. It is exactly what it says on the tin, movingly touching on Elvis’ relationship with his mother, his ailing marriage with the unseen Priscilla, his reluctance to defy his manager and his increasing dependence on drugs.

We see an unsure Elvis, short of confidence and fearful of performing live in front of a Las Vegas audience after seven years away from the scene, a fear he clearly gets over when the time actually comes.

And, oh those songs! From his first big hit ‘Love Me Tender’ through ‘Jailhouse Rock’ and ‘King Creole’, the title numbers of the three best movies he made, to ‘It’s Now Or Never’, ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight?’, ‘Always On My Mind’, the crowd-pleasing ‘Suspicious Minds’ (after a call-out from a fan at the back of the stalls), ‘In the Ghetto’ and ‘American Trilogy’ – and that’s just a few –- the magnificent Michaels brings them vividly back to life. They are all there, well not quite all but you know what I mean.

Missing is a personal favourite, ‘Old Shep’, but there was a searing cover of ‘Bridge Over Troubled Waters’ – “Simon and Garfunkel? Sounds like a pair of lawyers.” Not only could Elvis hold a note, he had a neat sense of humour.

What Michaels cannot quite replicate is Elvis’ animal magnetism that made fans young and middle-aged actually swoon, the charm of his smile, the curl of his lips, the catch in his throat, the sheer beauty of his voice – that was what made him unique. There won’t be another, but Michaels is as close as it gets.

Reuven Gershon and Mark Pearce do well as his real friends Joe and Charlie, Benjamin Stratton plays visionary producer Steve Binder with panache.

The musicians under MD Steve Geere are fab, particularly lead guitarist Niall Kerrigan, and the Sweet Inspirations backing singers Chevone Stewart, Katrina May and Misha Malcolm.

But it is Michaels’ show – it has to be – and there’s still plenty of time to catch him. This Is Elvis opened in Windsor in January and closes in Torquay on 4 August.

Jeremy Chapman