Explore Steamboat Marketplace

Schoolhouse rock

High school’s spring musical highlights Elvis’ hits

Friday, April 4, 2008

Photo by Brian Ray. Enlarge photo.

Taylor Anderson practices his singing and dance moves during a rehearsal for Steamboat Springs High School’s upcoming production of “All Shook Up” on Tuesday evening.

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly

By Margaret Hair (Contact)

Photo by Brian Ray

Tyler Hutson, left, and Marilyn Harris practice their singing and dance moves during a rehearsal for Steamboat Springs High School's upcoming production of All Shook Up on Tuesday evening.

Photo by Brian Ray

Sean Hill practices his singing and dance moves during a rehearsal for Steamboat Springs High School’s upcoming production of “All Shook Up” on Tuesday evening.

Steamboat Springs — The 22-member cast of Steamboat Springs High School Theater’s production of “All Shook Up” has had surprising luck running down mid-1950s costumes.

They’ll need them for the spring musical, which features Broadway interpretations of Elvis Presley tunes. The show goes up Thursday and runs through the next weekend.

Director and drama teacher Michael Brumbaugh chose the show when several students asked to do “Grease” for the spring musical.

“I personally feel like ‘Grease’ has been done to death, so I was looking for a show that was similar,” he said.

“All Shook Up” had its Broadway debut in 2005 and has picked up steam with high school drama programs and community theaters for its accessibility and natural flair.

So, despite the fact that Brumbaugh heard Elvis’ classic recording of “Can’t Help Falling in Love” for the first time this winter, he got copies of the score and handed them out to the 50 or so students auditioning.

They loved it — the hammed-up renditions of some of the best songs in the American rock ’n’ roll songbook, the silly “Footloose” plot, the greaser costumes and hand-jive choreography.

“They ended up putting it together pretty well,” said Gracie Stockton, who plays Natalie, the wants-to-break-free mechanic who poses as a man to hit the road with out-of-town motorcycle rebel Chad. Chad is a lot like one of Kevin Bacon’s more lasting characters, and the romantic elements of the plot are a lot like every musical Cole Porter ever wrote. And it’s all (very) loosely based on Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.”

“There’s a lot of comedy in it,” said Taylor Anderson, who plays Chad, adding that the story makes sense when propped up with Elvis songs.

“Things will be going along, and a song will come along and it fits perfectly into it,” he said.

Following other popular jukebox musicals, — such as “Mamma Mia” with songs by ABBA, “We Will Rock You” with songs by Queen, or “Movin’ Out” with songs by Billy Joel — “All Shook Up” focuses on early-era Elvis to piece together a high school love story. The high school production features a fairground set and a 15-piece band, and the cast is enthusiastic about performing.

“You ain’t nothing but a hound dog, unless you come to ‘All Shook Up,’” Stockton said.