Elvis Evolution : review

A few weeks ago, I was invited to a preview of Elvis Evolution at Excel London, Immerse LDN.

There were some technical glitches during the show and there was quite a bit of waiting around but overall, I enjoyed the experience.

Since then, the show has opened to the general public and had a press night. The reviews have been mixed. Some critics and fans have been scathing. One visitor is reported to have been removed by security for declaring the show ‘b*******’!

Other critics and fans have been kinder, describing the event as fun and moving.

I’m fairly positive about it too. Aside from the poor sound quality at times and the waiting between the different sections,  I did like it. 

What the show is.

It’s described as a walk-through immersive, multi media experience with live actors and musicians and music performance. Along the way there are themed bars where you can eat and drink. The aim is to give you a multisensory journey through the story of the King of rock ‘n’ roll, Elvis Presley, from poor country boy to an iconic superstar star, arguably the greatest entertainer in the music business.

At the heart of the show is the 1968 comeback TV special when Elvis, at a low point in his glittering career, staged a television comeback with a show which became one of the biggest events in music history.

As with immersive experiences the audience is included in the show. So, the first section takes you into the NBC break room before the legendary special begins recording. This involves the audience sitting around in a room with the actors dressed as TV crew running around trying to get the show off the ground. We are introduced to Sam Bell, a childhood friend of Elvis who knew him when the Presleys moved briefly to a black neighbourhood in the American south. Bell is trying to get to meet Elvis who has he hasn’t seen for 20 years.

We are then moved to sit in a train carriage going to Memphis as the cast act out the teenage years of Elvis‘s life and his initial rise to fame.

This section involves both live performances and video content and is atmospheric and moving.

We are then moved to a Hawaii themed bar which supposed to represent the years Elvis spent making successful but ultimately lightweight Hollywood movies.

The real aim of this section is to get you to buy drinks. If you’re with a group of friends, this could be really good fun But there is little going on by way of entertainment, at this point, save for a conversation between Sam Bell, the bartender and a woman he meets at the bar. There’s a lot of exposition. The night I went, the sound quality was very poor and I could hardly make out what was being said. As I know the Elvis story pretty well, I was not as hampered by this as other people might be who are less familiar with it.

The showpiece of the evening is the 1968 concert itself for which we are the audience. A live band, a trio, represent Elvis’ musicians and the man himself appears on video.

If you haven’t seen the 1968 special, it is magnificent. And well worth watching. However, it’s readily available on YouTube, video, DVD and other formats. Whilst this is the best part of the event, it has been disappointing those fans who were expecting a holographic projection of Elvis or something like the ABBA voyage concert also on in East London. This latter show is different because the members of ABBA who are still alive, played a significant part in bringing their younger selves to life through the miracles of modern technology. Sadly, Elvis left the building in 1977.

After the concert, there is video footage of famous faces talking about the impact of Elvis on them personally and popular culture at large. Sam Bell reflects on his childhood friend’s untimely death aged just 42.

What the show isn’t.

It is not a holographic experience featuring a life-size Elvis. There is no Elvis impersonator singing his songs. Unfortunately, for fans there isn’t much Elvis in the early part of the show at all. We see an actor playing him but his face is hidden in the shadows.

It’s also the story of Elvis as told by a childhood friend who didn’t see him for years on end. And this doesn’t always work. The show is, at times, a little too much about Sam Bell who was not a central figure in the Elvis story.

It seems to be a theme for Elvis Presley, that his life and story is now both the stuff of mythology and in the hands of others. In films, plays, documentaries, he is mostly shown through the eyes of someone else– whether it’s his ex-wife Priscilla, his Memphis mafia gang or as it was in the 2022 film Elvis by Baz Luhrmann, his manager, the crafty conman Colonel Tom Parker. That film, which was hugely successful, had the advantage of an electrifying performance by Austin Butler.

This theatre experience doesn’t offer that. And it’s not entirely surprising that some feel fans feel short changed.

Elvis was a spectacular performer and this theatre experience doesn’t do justice to him as that or as a real, complex man who stands, not just as a singer but one of the most significant figures of the 20th century.

Nevertheless, despite some gripes, I came out of the show happy. 

3/5

Elvis Evolution is on at Excel London until 28th December.