“Heartbreak Hotel”

[rating=2]Based on the success of “Million Dollar Quartet”, I anticipated that the prequel, “Heartbreak Hotel”, the story of Elvis Presley and his rise to fame before that story, would be as well conceived and written. “Heartbreak Hotel” a musical story, having its premiere on the stage of Broadway In Chicago’s Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place, is supposedly the story of Presley’s’ early years going from truck driver to heart throb and film star. It also explores the changes in music that were brought about by Sam Phillips ( Sun Records creator/producer) with his young find. The music, “rockabilly” was the music that allowed crossover that eventually became what is called “rock and roll”!

Playing Elvis in this 2 hours-15 minutes ( with an intermission) of story-telling is Eddie Clendening. He has the look of the youthful Elvis but to be honest, while he is a good singer, he does not hit the sensational range that the man created and his lower extremity does not even come close to being as alarming as Ed Sullivan (Colte Julian plays several roles and does each with a great touch) prior to THE television appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show! Sam Phillips is played to perfection by Matt McKenzie, who almost looks like the photos they portray on the screen throughout the show. In fact, since the Elvis Estate is involved in the production, there are a great many actual photos that are projected as the story unfolds- probably one of the better parts of the production.

The musicians that back up Elvis are Matt Codina ( Scotty/guitar ), DJ Fontana (drums), Jamie Pittle (drums)  and Zach Lentino ( powerful bass player, who does some wild things). Of course, since the story deals with the early years, we see the deal that brought Colonel Tom Parker into the position of “owning” Elvis. Jerry Kernion handles this part with the smoothness and style of the true conman that playwright and director Floyd Mutrux wanted us to see. He shows that Parker changed the life of this young man, and probably was the reason that Elvis turned to drugs and alcohol during the years that led to his early death.

The rest of the cast, playing many roles were fine and very supportive, showing great talent. In fact, they were far better than the script. Erin Burniston, Andrea Collier, Geno Henderson, Takesha Meshe’ Kizart, Alicia McCracken Morgan and Darcy Jo Wood- all splendid!

The problems with the story are often the time frames. 1954-1957 is the supposed time period and mostly in Memphis, but other locations, which are not clearly indicated. The songs, for the most part are not done in their entirety, but only snippets. We do get to hear “Blues Suede Shoes” and hear the story of how Elvis made that song a hit, “That’s All Right”, “Shake Rattle and Roll” (which starts the second act and is a production number worthy of a ticket purchase), and of course, “Heartbreak Hotel” which is where the story begins..”take a walk down a lonely street”!

The set is fairly simple with sets  Adam Koch)that glide on and off to keep the action moving swiftly, but there are some flaws in the smoothness, and very often the lighting (Jason Lyons)  seemed to be off. The sound (Drew Levy) was solid (  some of the accents made it difficult to understand the actors.) and the costumes Dustin Cross ) were truly the 1950’s ( I was a teen back then. I recall it all!). Daniel Brodie’s projections were powerful but sitting on the right side of the theater, some of the stage left projections were hard to see. When the show appears to be over, and many audience members rush to get out of the theater, DO NOT! The best part of the show is when Clendening and company let their hair down and do  a 20 minute curtain call- “All Shook Up”, “Jailhouse Rock” and more. This segment is worth the price of the ticket alone and worth spending time watching the front story!

“Heartbreak Hotels” will continue thru September 9th as follows:

Tickets range from $35- $75 which is affordable and family-friendly and can be purchased at the box office of the Broadway Playhouse located at 175 East Chestnut ( at Michigan Avenue) or any of the Broadway In Chicago box offices,

by calling the Broadway In Chicago Ticketline at 1-800-775-200 or online at www.BroadwayInChicago.com

You can pre-buy parking as well, but I suggest, if not using public transportation) to park in the Water Tower garage ( enter on Chestnut just East of Michigan), obtain a validation card at the desk of the theater for a wonderful discount.

To see what others are saying about this production, visit

www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at

“Heartbreak Hotel”.