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Broadway musical All Shook Up unites the works of two kings of their chosen field — Elvis Presley as the king of rock ‘n’ roll and William Shakespeare as the king of playwrights — with a result Vincent Hooper couldn’t help falling in love with when Perth-based HAMA Productions asked him to direct their next show.
“I’d heard of All Shook Up, but because it came out in 2004 on Broadway, and has never come to Australia in a professional capacity, I thought that maybe it was a bit of a dud,” Perth-raised, WAAPA graduate Hooper admits.
“But when I started looking into it, the arrangements are written by Stephen Oremus who did the arrangements for Wicked and Avenue Q (a show Hooper has starred in himself) and it’s got a really great script that’s set around a bunch of Shakespeare’s plays, including Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night.
“It’s not the Shakespearean language, but it’s that sort of high intensity of a script. It’s actually a beautifully constructed piece of theatre…the themes are really relevant to today because it explores inclusivity.”
Hanging up his Neverland boyish charm and roller skates from performing in recent productions of Peter Pan and Xanadu to direct, Hooper describes the show as being a love letter to Elvis, rock‘n’roll and the Broadway theatre experience, as it uses the music of Elvis to tell a classic tale of young love and forbidden romance.
Set in 1955 America, a small rule-following Midwestern town, run by a conservative mayor, is sent into a frenzy when motorcycle riding, rock‘n’roll singing, blue suede shoe-wearing heartthrob Chad rolls in.
“It’s Elvis’ music, but it’s not the Elvis story, although the lead character is definitely an Elvis type of person who sort of hip thrusts his way through this 1950s town and shakes it all up,” Hooper explains.
“Lots of characters start to fall in love with each other and there’s all these love triangles and who’s going to end up with who?
“Act two is fully set in a fairground, which very much references the forest of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, where anything can happen and love and passion is just sort of awoken.”
Vincent quotes one of his favourite directors Roger Hodgman when he says “90 per cent of direction is in the casting”, and he certainly feels confident in the Perth triple threat musical theatre performers for All Shook Up, including John Berry as Chad and Mia Simonette as Chad’s love interest Natalie Haller.
The cast also includes the soulful Paula Parore (The Voice Australia) plus Hooper’s reunion with Emma Haines and Brendan Hanson, who played Tinkerbell and Captain Hook to his Peter Pan last December.
“These characters, they’re almost comic book and sort of remind me of Archie and Riverdale,” he says.
“There are 10 or 12 leading characters where the audience needs to follow their journey, so we pretty quickly need to go ‘Oh, that’s this character who fits into this box’.
“I hope audiences have a wild ride. I know a lot of people who are coming because it’s Elvis’ music, which is great, but I think people are going to be really pleasantly surprised by the story and what it has to say. It just captures the essence of rock‘n’roll and the spirit of rebellion.”
All Shook Up is at Crown Theatre Perth, July 8 to 23.
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