

When did Elvis become “Elvis?” It’s a question that, really, helps us understand who he was and who we are, who he became as well as his music, marketing and, maybe, the United States from race to rock and roll. And that inflection point, from real person to rock star, person to persona, is a key element of “Heartbreak Hotel” with book by Sean Cercone and David Abbinati based on a concept by Floyd Mutrux. In the lush, large and well textured production at Northport’s John W. Engeman Theater, we get a chronological exploration of Elvis’ life with two Elvises. Drected by Paul Stancato and music directed, with a band on stage, by Chris Coffey and a cast of more than twenty, it’s a big, Broadway-style musical with Broadway calibre cast. So when did Elvis Presley, become, well, Elvis, in life and in the show? Or better yet, did he ever truly become the “king” of rock and roll, or was that, really, a character, an act, a role, that this performer assumed on stage?
In this somewhat joyous and uplifting production of “Heartbreak Hotel,” we see Elvis as a somewhat shy, enthusiastic young man (Spencer Chase) with cropped hair, discovering and falling in love with music and the curves of a guitar, long before the rock and roll bug bites, the hips swivel and the hearts break around the world. Joe Caskey plays the adult Elvis, opening the show at the end of the story amid news reports of Elvis’s explosion and implosion. He entranced and terrified the world twice, first with sexual energy and then with his spin into sadness, sorrow and struggle. But if the news intrudes for the first few seconds, we see a much more mannered, musical transformation in the musical itself that, yes, takes a stab at answering how, why and when Elvis Presley became Elvis the rock star. And it does give us a view of his life, including overlapping memories of the young Elvis, even as the older Elvis struggles with the seamy side of success. We get more Tennessee Ernie Ford than Tennessee Williams, more guitar strings than heart strings. This is a great, entertaining show about the rise of a rock and roll star, but it doesn't delve in depth into the emotional depths or conflicts, Prescilla's age, Colonel Parker's corruption, Elvis' transformation as a performer and a person, focusing more on the success, in the end, than the sacrifice.

So when did, well, the singer become the superstar? Elvis Aaron Presley (yes, Elvis has a middle name) was born January 8, 1935 , in Tupelo, Mississippi and moved to Memphis, Tennessee when he was 13. And we see or get a sense of this in the show. Sam Phillips, played with comic realism by Matthew Schatz, and Sun Records produced his first single. These produce possibly the funniest moments in the show. We laugh after Schatz says he’s searching for a white star only to hear Elvis sing a maudlin song– as Schatz declares this is not what he wants. The energy isn't there yet. Elvis walked straight out of church into the recording studio - and he sounded like it. Elvis was someone's son, before he was everybody's boyfriend. Elvis has not become “Elvis” yet. He gradually finds out that he has to become someone else, someone he is not, to sell songs and, maybe, his soul. Call it his Marilyn moment, or the moment that Lucille Ball realized she needed to make people laugh, rather than relying on her long legs.
Lucy dyes her hair red. Dustin Cross' costumes steer clear of cliche, while telling the story of a country boy turned into a rock and roll creation in this produciton produced by Richard Dolce. Elvis swivels his hips and places his legs in that now archetypical pose. His confidence is contagious. Elvis, and “Heartbreak Hotel,” is really about becoming an entertainer, playing a role. Just as Marilyn posed with her skirt blowing in the wind of a subway grill, Elvis becomes a public persona here, when he’s embraced as a movie star, except the role he plays is “the king of rock and roll” on stage. Caskey repeatedly talks about how he’s doing his job. Michel Vasquez as Prescilla, a bubbly portrayal of a sometimes broken woman, says someone has to love him and that’s her job. Yes, being Elvis is a joy, but it becomes a job and that may be the real tragedy of Elvis Presley. We enjoyed seeing him perform, but we all then mistook Elvis the man for Elvis the musician.

It's only long after he gets his guitar that Elvis, who we believe truly fell in love with the music, makes his mark and is marked. He has yet to truly hit a chord with people across the country. Elvis really only hit the national scene as a performer when, managed by Col. Tom Parker , played by William Thomas Evans a little bit like Col. Sanders with a checkbook, he recorded his first RCA Victor single titled “Heartbreak Hotel,” which was released in 1956 and became a number one hit. Elvis becomes not just a person, but a packaged product with news stories reporting his supposed affair with Ann Margaret (Sarah Rose) played with more than the apposite amount of sex appeal. There really is a third Elvis, the one in the news. We watch Elvis find his music, and lose himself in all the hullabaloo and the news, and it’s just a fine, fun ride in terms of seeing the rise, rather than the implosion, of a rock star.
“Heartbreak Hotel,” in addition to being a wonderful reason to relive and hear great Elvis songs (written by others), shows us the journey of a boy becoming a rockstar, movie star and, then, in part, Col. Parker’s puppet in Hollywood movies. It’s just entertaining to see Elvis back in the building and that’s a big part of the fun, along with a big cast and a very theatrical presentation. Spencer Chase plays a young, wholesome Elvis who wants to please his mother and sing in church, so much that he can’t please anyone else. Joe Caskey plays an Elvis who towers over the rest of the cast, at once athletic and a little bit of an Adonis, with a voice capable of stretching the keyboard to reach so many emotions. I would have liked to see the two Elvises interact more, but that’s not the style of the show. This is not a particularly introspective Elvis. Instead, we see Elvis’ public story on a set including projections, designed by Orion Forte, complete with places and dates on a black brick wall. But this is much more than a singing Wikepdia page for rock and roll’s first “white” hope or one of them. We watch the evolution of Elvis, played by a young man and a more mature adult. We get to experience Elvis finding himself, as well as enjoying our own discovery of him in this musical that follows Elvis from the grace of his youth to Prescilla and Graceland, but ends abruptly, leaving us with Elvis still king before things happened that made it impossible for all the king’s women and men to ever put this king back together again.

Doing an Elvis musical raises the question of how you will portray Elvis. If you’re not careful, you could end up not doing a personification, but an impersonation. Impersonations are to Elvis what rhinestone are to real diamonds, all style and no substance. Caskey’s Elvis is not exactly Elvis, but an interpretation. And the sexual energy, it seems, is reserved for a few numbers. As Elvis off stage, he doesn’t really radiate charisma, seemingly a little awkward, but when he becomes Elvis in a song or two, he has people in the audience standing and dancing, as if at a concert. “Bye, Bye Birdie” gives us some of the fun of Elvis on the personal side and so does “Heartbreak Hotel,” which despite its title, is a largely positive portrayal of a rock and roll life. Much of the show is torn from the headlines, or biography on stage, and much of the fun is the music sung and danced by a Broadway-caliber cast, but there are comic moments with Sam Phillips, dramatic moments with Prescilla and lots of exciting dancing and singing.
Ironically, the most heartfelt numbers, the most personal, come from a bevy of Black performers. Tarik Zeigler brings a reverend’s zeal for the moral power of music, while Kyle Ahmeer Bethea, Lena Richard and Bee Ogaldez fill out that sense of heart and hope. No song in a concert hall or Hollywood can ever equal the honesty of a song sung from the heart. Did Elvis sell his soul and sell out to find success? Probably not, but there is still a sense of him becoming a packaged product rather than a person, losing his own heart, even as he wants to become a serious singer and actor. Meet the male Marilyn Monroe. Caskey as Elvis starts by singing very wholesome, even religious songs. He’s dismissed as just another voice, as we hear African Americans singing with heart.

We know, though, that Elvis will discover rock and roll, or rather rock and roll (and Col. Parker) will discover him, as he becomes a bridge between Black music and a white audience. It’s entertaining to see him becoming Elvis on stage, although the transformation is more musical than dramatic here. And at least in this production, it seems that Joe Caskey actually doesn’t so much become, as create Elvis as a persona, a stage presence while remaining the young, wholesome man of the singer’s youth. Just as Marilyn existed in movies more than daily life, so this Elvis here as the sexual dynamo is a creation for stage, almost like a male Marilyn. We see Elvis the person become Elvis the persona and performer in this rollicking musical filled with rock and roll.
There are many memorable musical moments in “Heartbreak Hotel” which culminates in a kind of concert, and a few dramatic and comic ones, but it’s really a coming of age story for a rock idol. “Give us a little guess,” Elvis’ father says as he hands him his first acoustic guitar. Yet the transformation hasn’t really begun, as we watch a young and older Elvis play to express themselves, only later discovering sexual energy is the secret. It’s not what you have, but what you do with it. And Elvis just strums, without standing out, at first. Even as Caskey discovers his power as Elvis, we get a sense that the character is, really, a performance by a person who is very different. Elvis is his mother’s son, grounded and more in love with music than with anyone else. He has a heart of gospel, if not exactly of gold, even if his voice starts singing rock and roll (with the hips rolling). Caskey transforms when he performs Elvis’ hits, but we also see dramatic scenes with Prescilla (Michel Vasquez), the most dramatic moments, in fact. A volatile, disenchanted, drugged up Elvis in sunglasses shows up in the second act for a solitary moment, and basically fires his band. Luke Suretsky as a reasonable band mate is very realistic and funny, turning a few lines into a full character. That anger, though, is actually a breath of fresh air from a sometimes idealistic portrayal.
“This is rock and roll,” Caskey as Elvis says in sunglasses, disguising his eyes and his heart. “You’ve got to hit everything hard.”
We know he’s hitting drugs hard, at that point. His mother gone, he’s in mourning and it’s possible that even the medication from the music isn’t enough. I liked both acts, but the first felt like a record of a rock star’s rise and the second had more drama, if no final resolution as the struggle surfaced. I loved hearing Elvis sing a Sinatra (Matt Allen, who plays Sinatra and Elvis’ dad) song and Sinatra sing an Elvis song in a duet, and Elvis and Prescilla sharing a love song was truly touching and beautiful. The versatility of the voices in this show is a joy to behold. These instances, such as the love song between Elvis and Prescilla, were less performances, and more moments in a life in a musical packed with songs. The blend of music and dance works, giving us a fun show, more than an inside story for the rise and fall of the King. Although this show’s Elvis did transition to become a rock and roll star, he never lets go of his Southern roots. Joe Caskey never seems entirely comfortable as the new “Elvis” shaking up America with “All Shook Up” and “Hound Dog,” but rather remains the young man from the South with manners. We get a glimpse of his fall from grace, but only a glimpse. The show goes from the euphoria of headlines to the epiphany of exploitation and his life as an entertainer, but goes light on the drama and heavy on the heart throb. “He is the king of rock and roll,” we hear toward the end, before someone chimes in and says, “Was.”

This Elvis musical ends, really, before the “was” takes over, before the fall, as if we see Adam reach for the apple, but not devour it. We see Elvis before euphoria leads to the shipwreck of this rock star who runs aground against the rocks of rock and role (portraying a rock star). There is one scene where Elvis revolts against Col. Parker, but it is more a stray moment than a key part of the story. And there are strands of pure drama, but “Heartbreak Hotel” is more about the man and his music than his descent into pill-popping, medical madness. We hear that Elvis is going off the rails, and see it a little, but not much. This musical, really, ends before the self-destruction takes over, although stops is more accurate than “ends.” The musical concludes, leaving Elvis still singing, before he leaves the building. It doesn’t really end with a resolution, leading the audience to take to its feet too early, before the final song, as it concludes with a series of performances, ending with an older Elvis as if in concert. We hear “One for the Money,” “Jailhouse Rock,” “Love me Tender” and so much more in a show that concludes with a series of songs rather than a true ending. This musical saves Elvis from himself and gives us an almost happy ending as if he had never been found with a cocktail of medications mixed in his blood. Elvis almost gets a happy ending in “Heartbreak Hotel,” but the audience certainly does as they see a good show with great voices.
I don’t believe this is the definitive Elvis musical, at least in terms of story, but it is well written, structured and moves along quickly, with great music that keeps moving the show forward, rather than putting it on pause. And of course it has great songs and gives us the pleasure of Elvis back in the building. It doesn’t really examine relationships or conflicts much, but then maybe that’s the idea. We see the naïve, young Elvis make it big without watching, although we glimpse, the inevitable downfall when drugs took hold. Maybe Elvis Presley was never truly able to integrate those two, the young man discovering music and the rock star shimmying his hips. When we hear at the end that “Elvis has left the building,” it's something we haven’t seen. He is still with us, still in the building and going to take the stage at the next show. The truth is Elvis is emblazoned on the heart of America. And this show does show us how Elvis, the persona, was created by people who wanted to make money more than or as much as music. Elvis stated as a boy and became a business. Elvis Presley was the right singer at the right time for people who wanted to revive excitement and break away from the stoic, static sense of music as beautiful, and introduce a sexual, romantic excitement. Elvis was the perfect vehicle for that.
Part of Elvis’ story is the expropriation of music that Black performers were already doing, and that’s here. The racial elements of Elvis’ story are crucial in this “Heartbreak Hotel.” We hear African American singers belt out heartfelt songs as a skeptical, but practical Sam Phillips (Matthew Schatz) searches for a Caucasian performer who can overcome the prejudices of a white public. Schatz is realistic, likeable, yet cynical as he creates a character who understands the universe, even if he thinks it is flawed. He doesn’t agree with that prejudiced point of view, but he acknowledges that the white public wants a white face. Even later in the show, we see African American singers performing with heart, rather than the canned, commercial emotion that we can get when a singer is commercialized and a person becomes a product. Elvis Presley was called “the king.” And to many in many ways, he still is even if the reality is that crown has long since been knocked off by bad choices. Elvis in the show, and possibly in life, seems trapped, singing about blue suede shoes, at once a huge success, but still that little boy longing to sing pure songs.
This musical shows us how a Southern boy becomes a king, American royalty, and gives us a glimpse of this king’s fall from grace rather than his lack of grace at Graceland. In the end, Elvis' sexual appeal seems more snarl and stance than something from the soul, show business rather than showing his soul. We don't really get a single deep look at Elvis' relationships and conflicts, but we do experience the joy and some of the clashes in the journey, and a love of music that may have been the pivotal romance of his life. And it's just a lot of fun to watch and hear. Checking into the Engeman production of “Heartbreak Hotel” is well worth it. You’ll hear some great songs, see and hear some great acting, and see a well written, directed, staged and choreographed show. Elvis was a phenomenon that fascinated and terrified so many, because he unleashed an excitement and a longing, but he was a human being as well as an image on a screen and a performer on stage. We get glimpses of that humanity hidden in the show business here. And we feel asl if, briefly, Elvis entered the building and when the show’s done, you just might miss him a little more and once again as you leave.
Fun show. Great music.
It's a fun, entertaining show with a great cast that takes you on a musical journey that's memorable, a great chance to hear great songs and see wonderful scenes. It doesn't go in depth into Elvis' life, but touches on many elements where we know the story. Just a fun, wonderfully presented and produced show!