All Shook Up wows Raymond audience

Westwind Weekly photo by Allison Billings Raymond Playhouse Theatre performed All Shook Up, a play based on the songs of Elvis Presley, from March 14 to 24.

Allison Billings
Westwind Weekly News

Raymond Playhouse Theatre preformed All Shook Up from March 14th to the 24th to near-sold out audiences.
This fun-filled show, based on a book by Joe Dipietro, wowed its audience with songs from Elvis Presley, as the plot took us to a small town in the 1950s.
The play starts with Chad, a hip swiveling roustabout, being released from prison.
In a nearby, quiet little town full of sad lonely heart people we enter the lives of Natalie, the young female mechanic; Dennis, her best friend with a secret crush; Sylvie, the no-nonsense honky tonk owner; her daughter Lorraine, Natalie’s widow father Jim; the straight-laced law enforcing Mayor Matilda; her son Dean; and the sexy siren museum curator Sandra.
The musical delights its audience with songs, such as Jail House Rock, Love Me Tender, Heart Break Hotel, One Night With You, Follow That Dream and It’s Now Or Never.
Each song ties the plot together as the lives of each of characters intertwines with each other.
As Chad rolls into town on his motorbike seeking a mechanic for its “wiggly giggly sounds,” he is introduced to Natalie, who is immediately smitten with the roustabout. They launch into the song One Night With You.
As Chad inquires about entertainment in town, he learns about the Mamie Eisenhower Decency Act, outlawing “loud music, public necking and tight pants.”
Chad then seeks to incite some rebelliousness in the citizens (C’mon Everybody).
While Natalie fixes Chad’s motorbike, he seeks to inspire her to take to the open road (Follow That Dream).
At Sylvie’s Honky Tonk, Mayor Matilda’s golden boy Dean falls head over heels in love with Sylvie’s wrong-side-of-the-tracks daughter Lorraine.
While on the bus saying goodbye to Lorraine, they decide it is Now or Never and the two decide to run off together.
When his mother finds out, she tries to ship him off to military school and threatens to throw Chad in jail for what she deems his immoral behavior.
Sheriff Earl tells her to quit being so judgmental, and that he loves her.
As Natalie tries to fix Chad’s bike, she tries to find ways to make him fall in love with her, even putting on a dress, which confuses her father Jim and makes him feel old and alone.
He then confides in Sylvie about his broken heart.
Sylvie in turn sings There Is Always Me confessing her true feelings about him.
Chad, who has fallen in love with the sexy siren Ms. Sandra from the museum, enlists the help of his sidekick Dennis to give her a sonnet from Shakespeare to help her fall in love with him.
Dennis, who loves Natalie, recognizes her dressed as a man named Ed to get close to Chad and relinquishes his sidekick status to her. Chad pressures her into delivering the sonnet as part of their sidekick duties, which she does reluctantly.
Upon delivering the sonnet, Ms. Sandra falls in love with Ed, which at first angers Chad when he finds out, then he realizes he loves Ed too.
Around and around the plot goes until all truths are revealed. Matilda tells Dean that his father was a musician in a honky tonk and gives her blessing to his affections for Lorraine, Jim reveals to Sylvie that he loves her.
When Sandra finds out that Dennis wrote the note with the Shakespearean sonnet, she falls for him, Natalie revealing that she was indeed Ed.
The final scene has a triple wedding with Jim and Sylvie, Dennis and Sandra, Mayor Matilda and Sheriff Earl, with the bridesmaid Lorraine.
Chad, who is relieved that Ed is actually Natalie, interrupts the wedding and proposes to her which she declines, saying she is going to listen to him and Follow That Dream, taking to the open road on her bike.
After some persuasion, Natalie agrees to make Chad her sidekick and let him join her on the road. The brides and grooms marry and everyone celebrates with the song Burning Love.