| rev:text
| - Saw this show in Chicago as well. Significantly different presentation. Liked Chicago's better.
Positives--The Vegas cast is excellent. The most important character is Jerry Lee, and Martin Kaye doesn't disappoint. But the other three are terrific as well. All talented and they sing very well together.
But also several negatives.
The story, of course, relates to an unplanned meeting of Lewis, Elvis, Cash and Perkins at Sun Record Studios in 1956. Sam Phillips had the foresight to turn on a microphone and record the impromptu session as these four legends (Jerry Lee had yet to become one) interacted, talked, and sang, often the old gospels and spirituals that they all knew from their childhood. You can actually purchase the recording on Amazon, but it contains little in the way of full songs. These guys were not putting on a show. They were just having a good old time being themselves.
In Chicago, the show opens quietly, with each character coming in. In Vegas the curtain goes up and bang--the show begins to rock. In one sense it is a terrific start--I was clapping along, etc. But in another sense it is a mistake. After the bang-up opening number the actual play (and it is a play) begins. That is incongruous, and after the huge start, the show has nothing to build on. It has to go downhill from there. For me, the show never "flowed." They would do the necessary talking, etc., to advance the story, but then kind of break into one or more of them doing a "performance." It struck me as awkward and artificial. For example, when Elvis was "on," he would often gyrate, etc. I doubt very strongly that he did this when he was actually in that studio. Once could argue that that's what the audience came to see, but for me, it only looked phony and out of place.
But the WORST thing that happened the night we saw the show had nothing to do with the cast, etc. It was due to the incompetence of the Harrah management.
The first several rows at the front of the theater were completely empty, probably due to the cost. I mentioned to my wife that this really looked bad. The management obviously thought so too, as about 15 minutes into the show they began to move dozens of people from the back of the theater to fill in the empty seats. This went on for about 15 minutes or more. It was as if about 50 people, all sitting up front, had arrived late for the performance. It was a continuous parade of people walking in front of you, up and down the aisles, into their seats. Then some got up to move, etc. It destroyed about 30 minutes of the show and I think was inexcusable conduct on the part of management. This could be a terrific show, and I hope it succeeds, but I think it needs tweaking and management needs to reconsider their pricing structure and how they treat their customers.
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