Friday, March 25, 2005

Elvis Musical Starring Wayne Gretzky

Here is part of a review of "All Shook Up" from Yahoo!:

There may be life in the jukebox musical after all. The much-maligned genre that produced the highs of "Mamma Mia!" and the lows of "Good Vibrations" has strengthened the case for pop-song musical theater with a surprising "All Shook Up."

This genial, thoroughly ingratiating show, which opened Thursday at Broadway's Palace Theatre, features songs made famous by that icon of rock 'n' roll, Elvis Presley. And it also celebrates Presley himself, using his persona as the model for the musical's lead character, a guitar-strumming, motorcycle-driving, hip-swiveling roustabout named Chad.

What makes "All Shook Up" work so well is the show's cheerful, tongue-in-cheek sense of self. Book writer Joe DiPietro, one of the creators of the long-running off-Broadway revue "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change," has concocted a goofy, often funny and sweet-tempered story that is an affectionate send-up not only of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night," but all those cheesy movies Presley made during his mediocre film career. Remember such cinematic clinkers as "Harum Scarum," "Clambake" and "Speedway"? They make "All Shook Up" seem like "Long Day's Journey Into Night."
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The best send-up of the Elvis movies was on SNL. Wayne Gretzky played a busboy in Hawaii who clears tables with a stick, which happens to be in the shape of a hockey stick. As it happened, the local hockey team was missing one of its key players, so the busboy fills in and wins the game. Then he sings a song called "Waikiki Hockey" that goes something like this:

"Mona luckahiki means hockey
Mona luckawiki means love
A moonlit ice rink means romance
with my baby and the stars above."

Chorus:
"Kiki Hockey, Waikiki Hockey!
Kiki Hockey, Waikiki Hockey!"

Chad:
"I slipped the puck across the goal line
the crowd went crazy and roared.
But when my baby kissed me and held me in my arms
I knew that I had finally scored."

Chorus:
"Kiki Hockey, Waikiki Hockey!
Kiki Hockey, Waikiki Hockey!"

Kitten:
"I know why hockey is rockin'
Ice melts, and no one can play!
So we clean up the rinks
and put the ice in our drinks
and say, 'Mona laki hui ani hey!'"

Chad:
"I say hockey!
Waikiki Hockey
Our way!"

The transcript can be found here.

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