A revolution: Heartbreak Hotel informs and entertains with a playlist of Elvis hits (and more)

Things I Googled immediately upon returning from the Engeman Theater’s production of Heartbreak Hotel:
Why did Sam Phillips sell Elvis’ contract?
Did Elvis make a movie with nuns?
Did Elvis have a twin who died at birth?
Did Elvis and Priscilla divorce?
Did Frank Sinatra really think rock music was evil?

I was born the year after Elvis died. My knowledge of anything aside from his music, his outfits, his pelvis and that gnarly lip curl is very basic. Walking into the Engeman Theater on opening night, I hoped to learn something about the rock-and-roll icon, and I did. 

Focusing on Elvis’ life from when he was 11 to his early thirties, the Engeman Theater’s production of “Heartbreak Hotel” traces Elvis’ evolution from small-town boy to superstar, with some quick foreshadowing of the darker times his fame would eventually bring. The scenes with young Elvis (a magnetic Spencer Chase) are meaningfully tender and passionate, depicting a young boy with an old-soul connection to blues and gospel music. With his passion for music, young Elvis wins over the local record store employee (who allows him to preview records in the shop), parishioners at his childhood church (The Assembly of God Church), and musicians at the mostly Black clubs around his neighborhood. 

The scene “Welcome to Beale Street” appears early on in the musical and features young Elvis taking in performances by Roy Brown (Troy Valjean Rucker), Jackie Brenston (Tarik Zeigler) and Sister Rosetta Tharpe (Lena Richard), offering the blend of gospel and blues – called “race music” by many at the time – that so inspired Elvis. 

It is widely understood, and positioned clearly in Heartbreak Hotel, that without gospel, blues, and rock-and-roll pioneers like Chuck Berry and Big Momma Thorton, there would be no Elvis. 

The appeal of the genres – and in particular gospel – was nowhere as evident than in Scene 8, when the song “This Train is Bound for Glory,” performed by Reverend Brewster (Zeigler) and his congregation, brought clapping audience members to their feet, singing “Amen” and “Hallelujah!” 

The scenes with adult Elvis, played skillfully by Joe Caskey, showcase Elvis’ musicality with sincerity and poise; impersonating a musician of Elvis’ magnitude, with his hallmark hip sways and vocal depth, can easily be overdone. Caskey does it just right. 

He captures Elvis’ versatility and range in songs from “My Happiness/Peace in the Valley,” sung for his mom, to hit songs like “Jailhouse Rock,” “Hound Dog” and “Don’t Be Cruel.” In other scenes, Caskey captures the equally wide range of Elvis’ emotions as he goes from being young and in love, to an aspiring artist, full-out rock star, complicated husband and loving father. 

Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Elvis was part of a close-knit working class family. His parents, Vernon (Matt Allen) and Gladys (Pamela Bob), doted on their son, gifting him with a guitar in 1946, when he was 11 years old (they couldn’t afford a bicycle). Heartbreak Hotel highlights Elvis’ close relationship with his mom with scenes – from Elvis’ childhood to Gladys’ death – so sentimental the whole theater is reduced to pin-drop silence. 

By the early 1950s, Elvis was working small jobs around town to help support his family, including as a truck driver for an electrical company. In 1953, he and his girlfriend Dixie (an adorable Sarah Rose) drop into the Sun Records office, where Elvis pays to record a single for his mom’s birthday. A year later, he auditions for Sun Records owner and record producer Sam Phillips (Matthew Schatz), who records an unrehearsed performance of “That's All Right.” 

Originally immune to Elvis’ southern charm and drawl, Phillips announces Elvis’ song isn't just music, “it’s a revolution.” He takes the recording to Memphis radio station DJ Dewey Phillips (Jeff Gallup) who plays it on repeat. It was the first time that the music of Elvis Presley was heard on the radio, and an instant hit. 

The musical revolution Phillips spoke of comes through in the second half of Act I and throughout Act II; the ensemble performances and medleys (40 songs are featured throughout Heartbreak) energize the room with Elvis’ most iconic music while recognizing the hardship fame can bring. Under his new manager, Colonel Tom Parker (William Thomas Evans), Elvis rides the highs and lows of massive mainstream success, with Parker attempting to monetize everything Elvis had to offer no matter the cost, and steering him toward both box office hits and flops. 

The seamless time shifts in Heartbreak Hotel, between Elvis' youth and his stardom, lend to the production’s success, a reminder of how Elvis’ past directly influenced his present in very personal ways. The actors, all also live musicians, prove there’s no better way to tell Elvis’ story. Priscilla Presley (played by Michel Vasquez) appears in Act II, where her complicated relationship with Elvis unfolds. 

Heartbreak Hotel ends in 1968, during a comeback represented on stage in high-energy full-company renditions of five songs that pay tribute to Elvis’ legacy before his downfall, memorializing the charisma and impact even us Elvis non-experts hold dear. 

Heartbreak Hotel can be seen on Wednesdays at 7pm, Thursdays at 8pm, Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 2pm and 8pm, and Sundays at 2pm and 7pm. Tickets start at $82 and may be purchased by calling 631-261-2900, going online at engemantheater.com, or visiting the Engeman Theater Box Office at 250 Main Street in Northport. 

And for those curious:
Sam Phillips sold Elvis Presley’s contract for a reported $40,000 due to financial difficulties his company, Sun Records, was facing. At the time, it was the highest price ever paid for a pop artist.

Change of Habit is a 1969 American crime drama musical film starring Elvis Presley and Mary Tyler Moore, who plays an undercover activist nun who Elvis’ character unsuccessfully tries to seduce.

Elvis’ identical twin brother Jesse Garon Presley was stillborn 35 minutes before his mother Gladys delivered Elvis.

Elvis and Priscilla Presley finalized their divorce in 1973 after about six years of marriage, though they separated earlier. Priscilla remained close with Elvis until his death.

At one point, Frank Sinatra (played by Matt Allen) detested rock-and-roll, calling it, “the most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear.”