Elvis-World.com

Cirque du Soliel’s multimillion-dollar Elvis show won’t open until November 2009 — Project CityCenter has to be built first — but local producer Joey Battig already thinks he knows what to expect: “Fluff and puff and goofy Elvises coming down from the ceiling.”

That’s why Battig believes there is room to get a foothold on the Strip ahead of Cirque. Last weekend he opened an old-school Elvis Presley tribute starring Trent Carlini, one of the most highly regarded impersonators in a cottage industry known for a few of its own goofy Elvises.

“We just want the truth,” Battig says of his new surrealism-free revue at the Sahara with a truth-in-advertising title: “The Musical History of The King starring Trent Carlini.”

Carlini worked on the Strip in “Legends in Concert” during the ’90s. More recently, he fronted his own show at the Las Vegas Hilton until the hotel’s new owners decided to spend big on Barry Manilow as the new master tenant of the house Elvis built in the ’70s.

“After leaving the Hilton where Elvis performed, there was just nowhere to take the show,” Carlini says. Instead, he moved his family to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and spent most of this year fishing and spending time with his four children, ages 2 to 13.

“When I left, I didn’t think anyone was going to miss me,” he says. “I literally cut myself off. Shut off my Web site, shut off my phone numbers. I didn’t want any interruptions at all.”

Carlini was fed up with a Las Vegas that reveres Elvis as an icon, but had turned the corner on serious-minded tributes. A ’70s jumpsuit model often appears with Mayor Oscar Goodman or in other city promotions, but you can’t find one in a ticketed show beyond “Legends.”

The King’s original fan base is retirement-aged, no longer the Strip’s hot demographic. Had he lived, Presley himself would be 72 on Monday.

But the music staged made a comeback when “A Little Less Conversation” was used in the movie “Ocean’s Eleven” and the “Las Vegas” TV show. A non-Cirque group of French Canadians staged a theatrical hit called “The Elvis Story” with a sincere biographical approach.

For his part, Carlini’s modest-budgeted “The Dream King” offered sincerity and a credible live band, and was keeping up its attendance numbers when it closed in late 2004 to make way for Manilow.

The new show is “no less than what was at the Hilton,” Carlini says, adding that it comes complete with a 12-piece musical ensemble. But what really drew him back to town was the promise of going beyond that.

Battig was “very persuasive,” Carlini says. “He’s got some great ideas. He wants to focus this even more.”

The producer, working as partners with Ennis Jordan of Big Horn Entertainment, sold Carlini on the goal of gradually increasing the production value as the show gathers steam. The two envision a day when they can re-create the backdrop of the “Aloha from Hawaii” TV special, or reproduce musical numbers from the “Viva Las Vegas” movie.

“We’re the raw diamond right now, and we’re polishing it,” Carlini says of the show that shares the Sahara’s downstairs theater with the Scintas.

Born in Chicago to Italian parents, Carlini spent much of his youth in Italy. As a teenager, he performed and recorded songs there, where roots and rockabilly were more popular than in the United States.

His Elvis career sprang from a stint in a rockabilly band called the Ambassadors. Accolades from several tribute events drew the attention of John Stuart, the producer of “Legends” which Carlini went on to close from 1992 through 1996. “In those six years I perfected the one segment of Elvis’ career (but) I didn’t want to be that cliche of Elvis that they wanted me to be: ‘Thank ya, thank ya very much,’ ” he says.

He struck out on his own with what most would view as a major comedown: “The Dream King,” a tiny lounge revue performed to recorded music in the now-demolished Boardwalk casino.

Carlini claims he “truly loved” the Boardwalk, which “gave me that experience to be up in your face. I think one of the most successful things I’ve ever done was that little show.” But he made the jump to the Hilton in 2000, first to the casino’s cabaret venue and then the stage the real Presley played.

Carlini says he has no Kingly delusions himself. “When I walk off the stage, that’s it. I’m done,” he says. “I don’t care to indulge in what his habits were or act like him or drive the same cars he had. For me, that’s frivolous.”

Though Carlini has staged workshops to share the techniques of Elvis impersonation, late nights of rehearsal for this new venture seemed to have caused him to blank out on the specific secrets of his success. “Still to this day, I have no clue of what I do that really makes it different,” he says. “I know that I have a great deal of integrity and a great deal of passion for what I do.

“Sometimes it takes an entire life just to know yourself a little bit. How can you know someone else’s life, especially when you don’t have him in front of you?” he muses. “I just try to focus on the man musically and his personality from what I see, and from what others have offered to me.”

He is sure of one thing. “I think this (phenomenon) is going to bury me — and a lot of other people.”

Source

The new year will be a big year for Elvis Presley fans, as 2007 marks the 30th anniversary of the death of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

There will be new events and new products galore to honor Presley’s legacy, from birthday bashes this month at Graceland and throughout the nation, to a marathon of Elvis programming on the TV Land channel in August.

Presley was born Jan. 8, 1935, and died Aug. 16, 1977. He was 42.

A scant three years after he graduated high school, Presley became the first rock ‘n’ roll star. A gold record, “Heartbreak Hotel,'’ and a hit movie, “Love Me Tender,'’ were among the first major achievements in a career that would redefine pop music and pop culture.

Handsome, talented, generous and vulnerable, Presley made his fans weak with longing. Everyone wanted to be like him or be liked by him.

From a dusty, broke-down Southern childhood, he rose to become over-the-top glamorous. His style … epitomized by the lean, bad-boy look of the ’50s as well as the Vegas showman get-up of the ’70s … remains influential.

For a detailed look at the very young Presley, check out “Elvis at 21: New York to Memphis,'’ a book of glorious black-and-white photos by Alfred Wertheimer, a freelancer assigned to take publicity shots of the star for RCA. Wertheimer was intrigued by Presley and documented the young star throughout his breakthrough year, 1956.

The book weighs a ton … it’s more fitting for the dining-room table than the coffee table … and the full-page photos make those famous features all the more compelling. Photos of star-struck fans capture the whirlwind of Presley’s early
career, and the sizzle of excitement that followed him wherever he went.

The hardcover book is published by Insight Editions and lists for $65.

The Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank will present two well-known sides of Presley on Jan. 27. “The Elvis Birthday Bash and Costume Contest'’ stars Mike Albert as ’70s Elvis and Scot Bruce as ’50s Elvis. The entertainers will impersonate the King and perform many of his hits.

Tickets, priced a $30, $25 and $20, are available by calling (732) 842-9000 or through www.countbasietheatre.org.

On Jan. 20, Elvis impersonator Jerry “El'’ Papp will join forces with Frank Sinatra song stylist Lou Kady in a “Frank & Elvis ’50s Big Band Birthday Bash'’ at the Holiday Inn, 1000 Roosevelt Ave. in Carteret.

Bill Turner, a former guitarist for Bill Haley, will provide musical accompaniment with his Blue Smoke Band.

Admission is $49, which includes an open bar with butler-style hors d’ouvres from 7 to 8 p.m., followed by dinner and the show. Reservations are required. Call (732) 541-9500.

The real Presley and Sinatra initially appealed to different generations, but, as Kady said, “There had to be mutual respect there.'’

“They both played Las Vegas,'’ said Kady, who lives in Holmdel. “They both sang great music, and everybody loves great music.'’

Kady’s own favorite Elvis was the early ’60s, “Blue Hawaii'’ phase.

“Everybody sees Elvis in a different light,'’ Kady said, “but, for me, that one touched all bases.'’

Priscilla Presley, in the foreword to a new book about Graceland, recommends two ways to get to know her husband. First, she advised, study his recordings and concert films.

“His gifts as a singer and entertainer were phenomenal,'’ she wrote, “and because of the honesty and genuineness he brought to his work, his true spirit always came through.'’

Next, get thee to Graceland.

“Some part of Elvis’ spirit is imprinted on this place . . . There’s a warmth that remains,'’ she wrote.

If you can’t journey to Memphis, Tenn., this year, check out “Graceland: An Interactive Pop-Up Tour'’ by Chuck Murphy, with the aforementioned foreword by Priscilla Presley.

The chunky coffee-table book was published in November by Quirk Books. It retails for $40.

The pop-up pages are elaborate, accurate representations of some of the more famous rooms at the Presley mansion, including the Jungle Room and the Music Room.

It’s fun to rifle through Presley’s record collection … he liked everyone from Milton Berle to Mahalia Jackson … and to peek into his refrigerator, which contained the expected hot dogs and Pepsi, but also Earthbound Farm organic iceberg lettuce.

The book allows you to do both those things, as well as to learn about Presley’s Christmas traditions and his kindly dealings with his staff.

What comes through is not only the extraordinary aspects of Presley’s daily life, but the mundane, too: Dinner with the TV on, shopping for furniture at a local department store. Those are the details that can break your heart because they’re so far removed from the trappings of Presley’s fame. For all the triumphs and turmoil in his life, Presley was a regular guy.

Source

Combining all-time favorite Elvis Presley songs with a surefire rock ‘n’ roll story, “All Shook Up,” the musical that took Broadway by storm last season, will ride into the Community Center Theater for a strictly limited engagement of 16 performances beginning Jan. 24, 2007.

The Sacramento premiere of the new Broadway musical is presented by California Musical Theatre’s Broadway Series.

Headed by newcomer Joe Mandragona along with Jenny Fellner, fresh from Broadway’s Mamma Mia and TV, stage and screen favorite Susan Anton, “All Shook Up” tells the romantic tale of how a young girl’s dream comes true when a guitar-playin’ roustabout rides into a square state and turns the town upside down with his hip-swivelin’, lip-curlin’ and sexy song singin’.

The clever book is by Joe DiPietro (”I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change”), with direction by Tony Award-nominee Christopher Ashley (”The Rocky Horror Show”), and features 24 Presley classic hits songs including “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Burning Love,” “Jailhouse Rock,” “Blue Suede Shoes,” “It’s Now or Never,” and “Don’t Be Cruel.” Sergio Trujillo, who is currently represented on Broadway with the hit musical “Jersey Boys,” choreographed this well tuned hot-rod musical that took
Advertisement
Click Here!
Broadway by storm and guarantees to have your entire family jumpin’ out of their blue suede shoes!

Broadway Series

All Shook Up
January 24 - February 4, 2007

Twelve Angry Men
March 7 - 18, 2007

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
May 16 - 27, 2007

The Light in the Piazza
June 13 - 24, 2007

Tickets for “All Shook Up,” priced at $15 - $65 are on sale now at the Community Center box office (264-5181) and Tickets.com.

For more information visit http://www.sacBroadwaySeries.com

Source

A paper cup ELVIS PRESLEY gave to a fan at a concert in 1976 has sold on auction website eBay for more than $200 (GBP103). The King passed on the cup during a gig at Robert Stadium in Evansville, Indiana on 24 October 1976. The winning bidder, known as ruth5657, paid $204.03 for the unusual memorabilia, which comes accompanied by a bootleg cassette recording of the gig, photos taken at the event and video footage of a female fan asking for the cup. The cup was previously auctioned on eBay in 2005, when it sold for $300 (GBP154). It also inspired the song THE ELVIS CUP from Philippine Presley impersonator RENELVIS. Presley died in 1977 aged 42.

Source