Forum Theatre, Malvern – 23rd November 2022
Reviewed by Courie Amado Juneau
4****
The show began, in the grandest tradition of the King (not him, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll), with a singabout through the crowd. A nice warmup for the audience and I can only guess at how exciting touching the real thing must have been. No scarves were thrown or smooching (yet) but the night was young so many ladies (and some gentlemen I’m sure) lived in hope.
This show wasn’t just a Christmas show, so soon enough we were into some solid gold rock ‘n’ roll hits. And on this cold, rainy night a bit of Sun was most welcome. Sun Records that is and “Good Rockin’ Tonight” in particular.
“Baby Let’s Play House” and an Ed Sullivan themed section including “I Was The One” and “The Jordinaires” singers followed bringing us to another welcome part of the evening – a rich seam of comedy, with the Jordinaires (the band) doing “Winter Wonderland” (not seriously) with bells. Highly entertaining.
Elvis’s film career was showcased via “Don’t Be Cruel”, “Devil In Disguise”, “Jailhouse Rock” and “Treat Me Nice” (a massively underrated song in this reviewers humble opinion). All showed that though the scripts may have often fallen flat the film music remained of the uttermost quality! Hawaii (and more generally South America) we’re featured by “Rock A Hula Baby”, “Return To Sender” and “Viva Las Vegas” – I mean, that’s enough to justify seeing most shows right there!
Mario Kombou was visually enough like Elvis to suspend disbelief but if you shut your eyes he sounded remarkably like the original. He had the moves, the gestures and the patter down pretty well and was certainly a crowd pleaser. He was also genuinely funny – he had us in stitches throughout.
The second half opened with a recreation of the 68 Comeback Special – seated, leather clad and powerful. This included a Christmas favourite from Mud, “Lonely This Christmas” and culminated in “If I Can Dream”, one of Elvis’s best songs.
The ladies got to shine individually with “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” from Chelsea and “Santa Baby” gaving Billie her chance to make a couple of fellas nights with the lines “Think of all the fellas that I haven’t kissed” (complete with pecks on the cheek). Later, both ladies duetted on “Fever” in a lively disco version. That’s all apart from the marvellous dancing and backing vocals!
That most famous of openings “Also Sprach Zarathustra” (still thrilling) brought the evening to a chronologically logical and exciting climax with a couple of jumpsuits, the 70s touring years repertoire and scarves liberally dispensed to an eager throng. I really loved hearing “Way Down” from the last album.
A massive feel good show whose tickets ought to be dispensed by the NHS! “Good Rockin’ Tonight” kicked off the show and continued throughout, for that is what Mario and the gang delivered, very good rockin’! Give yourself an early Xmas prezzie and see The Elvis Years at Christmas