‘All Shook up’ – Like its shaken, not stirred equivalent!

‘All Shook up’, the latest in the series of musicals from the Leila Alvares stable, opened to a packed house in Bangalore last evening. I'm sure there would be critic's reviews that follow but this is a personal account of it, as a avid theatre lover. Ever since the play was announced the previous week, I was eager to see it, especially since it spoke of an Elvis twist. Also, I must confess that in the past few years, I have watched 4-5 of their productions and enjoyed them immensely. Last year, getting to watch ‘Joseph and his Amazing Techni-colour Dream coat’ was a struggle of sorts. All places selling the tickets had sold out and we finally landed up going to Kavita Kasturi’s house to buy the last few of them [she’s in charge of organizing the tickets]. Well, the struggle was worth it – the play was a delight - and with that, Leila Alvares’ productions firmly established on my annual social calendar.

And there we were, the six of us, on opening night and in seats to die for – right in front of the centre stage [all thanks to Kavita]. It started with a bang with the song “Jail house bird”, setting the context for the Elvis flavoured play and getting us all in the mood, with each one in the audience, singing along and swaying to the beat. In the next 2 hours that followed, it was a treat after treat. Eternal Elvis songs were revisited; the audience, one with the humours on the stage, crooning wherever they knew the lyrics; roles of lead characters etched well; the actors [many recognizable from last year’s production including Arvind Kasturi & Prem Koshy] well cast, confident and impressive; dancers, entertaining and lending the essence of exaggeration to the stage; the costumes and sets, detailed and apt; and the music as foot-tapping as ever.

“As always, the music and singing was live”, as Leila repeatedly conveyed, and there was full justice to the theme of a musical, never mind the hiccups of sound quality and faulty audio control. Among the actors, the favourites this year, no doubt, were Neville Nazareth, as the very cool, Elvis spirited, women-exciting, leather jacketed Chad and Jude Lazaro [known more as last year’s Joseph] in his endearing ‘Side-kick’ role.

A satisfying performance, enveloped in great music and fine singing, made our evening thoroughly enjoyable. Only when Leila, during her credits speech, talked about seeing us next year, I realized that it was a one ‘long’ year before we got to see another such play. Hmmm, anyway, for now, we left with flashing eyes reflecting our pleasure, strains of “Can’t help falling in love” and “a little less conversation” playing in our heads, and gushing conversation about the interesting men in the play [read: Chad, Dennis, Dean].