ST. LOUIS, MO — When Elvis leaves this building an especially roomy vehicle is needed as there are four Elvises (Elvi?) in this production.
“This show has thrown some people off, because it’s not strictly a Broadway show, not strictly a rock ‘n’ roll show, but a perfect hybrid of both,” declares Elvis Lives! tour manager Stephen Gudis.Billed as “The Ultimate Elvis Tribute,” the show was recently performed at the newly-refurbished Peabody Opera House in St. Louis. It features four performers, each representing Elvis’ four periods (1950s, movie era, 1968 comeback and Vegas years). The four performers (Victor Trevino Jr., Kevin Mills, Ben Klein and Bill Cherry) are “winners” is a very real sense — every year Elvis Presley Enterprises holds an annual worldwide artist contest, and the four winners become part of this show. Backing them up is a taut and impressive four-piece band.
The tour hit the road for an eight-week tour starting in January, and the multi-media aspect is especially effective, with a 20 by 40 foot, 1,500 lb. video screen provided by Memphis, TN-based Elite Multimedia’s Jeremy Byrd and Tom Wilson.
Gudis says moving the show in and out of a wide variety of venues has gone remarkably smoothly. He does confess there was a hiccup in the beginning when he went through two stage managers in as many weeks before coaxing his old friend and industry stalwart Wade “Tennessee” Hampton Slatton to go out with him. “When I called him, he tried to tell me he was retired!” laughs Gudis. “I said, ‘No you’re not — not yet anyway!’”
Lighting
As Gudis gives a tour of the stage in the final stages of load in, it’s noted there are a lot of Clay Paky Sharpys to be seen. “These are the hottest lights in the business right now,” he says, pointing to one of them.
Lighting engineer is Gregg Maltby, a freelance designer from Las Vegas, with 35 years in the concert business — a big chunk (28 years) with Huey Lewis and the News. He’s also currently designing a Boston tour for a third consecutive summer. “Two years ago, this show was more of a straight-concert type show,” he says, describing its evolution. “This time, we’re trying to add more theatrical elements. Now Elvis’s voice is narrating the show [via] film clips from the Graceland vault.”
He’s doing a lot with a little. The rig consists of two trusses. “There are 12 [Vari*Lite] VL3000 Spots and 16 VLX3 LED Wash Lights, which are very happening,” he says. There are eight of the Sharpys Gudis referenced, along with 250W ACLs, PARs and 300 strobes. “I had no problem with the gear.”
Specific to the St. Louis event, there was a snag — one that he’s found with other venues as well: “I couldn’t hang the downstage truss off of the front of the stage,” he says, of the Peabody (which was dormant for decades before being brought back to its splendor just last year). “When that happens, the truss goes upstage of the main curtain and I tie the theatre’s house dimmers and light the dancers manually on my grandMA.
Video
“Video is an essential part of most shows today,” says Nicholas Bush. “Trying to capture the ‘big moments’ of a show is always a goal in video.” Bush, video technician, hails from Oklahoma City. He has been handling video chores for concert tours for more than a dozen years, since he was 19. He’s pleased to be working on this rendition of Elvis Lives! “In this show, the video helps to set a mood as well. Content running on the LED curtain sets the stage for some of the songs. I really like the old footage and pictures of Elvis, which are narrated by Elvis himself.”
The LED curtain being used is a 20mm pixel flex product provided by Elite Multimedia. “It is the first LED curtain that I’ve ever worked with and I’ve been very impressed with how well it holds up to road travel and the picture quality is also amazing. I usually do LED walls and I’ve heard a lot of horror stories about LED curtains and their durability, but I’ve had few problems to troubleshoot and diagnose. It’s easy to understand signal flow and power.”
The camera in place is a Sony DCR-VX2000. “Content is driven using SAW” (Software Audio Workshop), “which is triggered by the audio console,” in this case, RML Lab’s SAC.
Despite the rigging challenges posed by the Peabody’s layout, Gudis notes that “the St. Louis show was wonderful. I can’t think of anything troubling during load-in, show or load-out. Most of the time, my biggest concern is my front-of-house location. That wasn’t a problem at all. The only thing that I would say slowed us down was the gear having to go up and down on an elevator. Even that went relatively smooth. All in all, it was a good day and a great show.”
