POP MUSIC : Obsessions With Elvis--On Stage and Off

Terry Mike Jeffrey and Julian Whitaker are exactly the type of obsessed Elvis Presley fans that the producers of “Elvis: An American Musical” are counting on.

Jeffrey was 15 in 1969 when he talked his parents into giving him bus money to ride here from his home in Paducah, Ky., just to see Elvis in concert.

The enterprising teen-ager maneuvered his way backstage, past the security guards, to actually shake hands with the King. Jeffrey, now 34, still proudly clings to a color photo of the moment.

Whitaker was 10 in 1958 when he heard Elvis’ “Hound Dog” on a jukebox. “I don’t know what it was about that record, but it changed my life. . . . It made me want to be a singer, too,” he says.

Whitaker realized one of his Elvis dreams in 1984 when he convinced a Maryland club owner to finance a recording session for him in Nashville. The musicians included none other than Elvis’ original drummer and background vocal group.

Whitaker’s single was released on the club owner’s own Capri label, but didn’t sell enough to get picked up by a major label--so the aspiring singer returned to his job as an assembly-line inspector at the GM plant near Baltimore.

And sure enough: Jeffrey and Whitaker will be on hand Friday night when “Elvis: An American Musical,” a $3 million multi-media production, begins a two-month, “pre-Broadway” engagement at the Las Vegas Hilton.

They won’t, however, be among the 1,600 Elvis fans in the audience.

The two men will be on stage--playing Elvis.

Show-Biz Fantasy

In an ultimate show-biz fantasy, Jeffrey and Whitaker are two of three singers playing Elvis in this multimedia, “Beatlemania”-style salute.

Along with Johnny Seaton, the main Elvis in the show, they were chosen from more than 1,000 singers and actors who auditioned for the production, which tours the country after the Vegas engagement. Jeffrey will portray the teen-age, pre-”Heartbreak Hotel” Elvis, while Whitaker will be the tragic, overweight figure.

The Vegas dates will be the highlight of the tour for both men because they’ll be performing on the same stage where Elvis gave more than 700 performances--a stage so revered in Presleydom that Hilton stage manager Terry Little says a couple of fans over the years offered him $100 to let them just walk across it.

Asked about the prospect of going onto the Hilton stage, Whitaker paused to find the right words.

“The man was such an idol to me when I was a kid,” he said finally, his eyes moistening. “I mean, I’d love to just be in the showroom, watching this tribute to Elvis . . . but to be Elvis. I can’t find the right word . . . it’ll just be . . . ah . . . .”

A member of the production company who observed lots of obsessed Elvis fans during auditions, said, “It’s eerie . . . almost scary to see how someone’s life can be so affected by someone else . . .”

Added Johnny Seaton, who liked, but didn’t revere Elvis, “At the auditions, people showed up with their own Elvis capes and entourages--and we’re talking serious entourages . . . their own bodyguards, Col. Parkers and Priscillas. . . . Some people get a little weird, if you know what I mean.”

Second Comeback

Eleven years after the death of rock’s greatest star, Elvis is making his second Las Vegas comeback.

Presley’s first Vegas appearance--at the Venus Room of the Frontier Hotel in April of 1956--is still a favorite story around town. Who could forget such a disaster?

Elvis’ sensual vocal on “Heartbreak Hotel” and equally sexy presence on national TV shows had already made him America’s new teen idol, but most adults in the ‘50s dismissed the 21-year-old singer, with his radical mixture of country and blues, as a crude no-talent.

And it was adults who sat in judgment in the Frontier, where Presley shared the bill with the Freddy Martin Orchestra and comedian Shecky Greene.

Reviews and crowd reaction at the showroom was so bad in 1956 that Presley’s name went from the top of the marquee to the bottom after a few days and Presley’s manager, Col. Tom Parker, agreed to cancel the second half of the star’s two-week contract.

Presley was a certified legend by the time he returned to Vegas in 1969, but he was still on trial around town.

The shows weren’t labeled a comeback, but Presley hadn’t done live shows (except a Hawaii benefit) in years--and the times had changed. Newcomers like Bob Dylan and the Beatles had revolutionized pop music once more, causing many critics and fans to consider Presley outdated.

Yet Elvis was triumphant at the Hilton, which was then called the International. He was looking better and singing better than ever, and he sold out every seat in the 2,000-seat Hilton showroom for two months a year for seven years.

Bruce Banke, executive director of publicity and advertising at the Hilton, remembers the intensity of those years. “There’s never been a star like Elvis in this town--Sinatra, Streisand, any one,” he maintained in an interview last week in his office, the wall behind him covered with Elvis photos.

Is he surprised that Presley’s fame seems undiminished 11 years after his death?

“Not a bit,” Banke replied. “You couldn’t watch the thousands of fans who came here all those years without knowing something extraordinary was going on . . . though it’s hard to know just quite what it was that made people (care about) Elvis so much.”

Elvis’ appeal was certainly more than musical.

Certain people each generation--Presley and Monroe, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King--affect us in ways that can not be explained by ordinary measurements. Their impact goes beyond such definable traits as talent or intellect and reach into such personal and elusive areas of inspiration and dreams.

Terry Mike Jeffrey, from the “Elvis” cast, offers this view: “He represented people’s hopes--a symbol to people that no matter how low you are at the beginning, you can accomplish anything. That’s what the American Dream is all about, isn’t it.”

Special-Effects Show

Newspaper ads for “Elvis” stress that the production is from the “creators of ‘Beatlemania’ ” and that the Hilton engagement is a “pre-Broadway world premiere.”

That’s only partially true.

Jules Fisher, one of the show’s many producers, and Robert Rabinowitz, its writer, were involved in creating “Beatlemania” a decade ago. But they both see this project as far more ambitious: a combination of live performance--featuring 17 singers and dancers--and elaborate video/film sequences.

The images, flashed on three separate screens, highlight the changes in Presley’s life and American society as the cast goes through four dozen tunes, from “Blue Suede Shoes” to “Suspicious Minds.” Among numerous special effects: massive, oversized puppets watching Elvis perform on a huge TV screen.

Rabinowitz employs the images and special effects to contrast what he sees as the conflicting innocence and corruption in both Elvis’ life and the country over the past 30 years.

There are, however, no plans to take the show to Broadway. It previewed earlier this month in New Haven, Conn., Cleveland and Houston, and will play limited engagements in other cities following the Hilton run. The “pre-Broadway” line is strictly for credibility.

Explained Roger Hess, another of the show’s producers, “There have been so many Elvis revues and Elvis impersonators around that we want people to realize this is something special, and the Broadway reference is one way to do that.”

Upbeat Mood

The atmosphere was upbeat in a Manhattan rehearsal hall last month as “Elvis” director-choreographer Patricia Birch led the singers and dancers through an intricate routine.

The three lead performers were so excited to be part of the production that they hadn’t yet focused on the demands posed by all the special effects. Because the film footage comments on the live action, the timing of the actors needed to be exact or the effect would be lost--a challenge even for experienced actors.

Birch realized the difficulties, but she led the cast through their steps in a calm, confident way that helped keep the singers at ease. The trio talked easily to a reporter during rehearsal breaks about what the show meant to them, exhibiting little anxiety regarding the opening, just three weeks away.

There had been some concern expressed privately by members of the show’s staff about the inexperience of the performers, but Birch sensed in Seaton, Jeffrey and Whitaker an authenticity and understanding that would make them believable as Elvis.

And, sure enough, they carried themselves during the rehearsal in ways that made them seem at times to almost be Elvis.

Only Johnny Seaton, perhaps, would cringe at the thought.

Career Opportunity

Watching Seaton during the rehearsal, it was easy to see why it’s always been easy for the 29-year-old to get attention singing Elvis songs. He’s got Presley’s sensual eyes and quick, disarming smile plus a voice that can sound, on songs like “Jailhouse Rock,” almost identical to the King.

It was fun, he said, to win a high school talent contest in the Washington-Baltimore area shaking his way through “All Shook Up” and he enjoyed traveling through Europe after high school doing an all-Elvis show.

Eventually, however, he got tired of people in clubs and bars always asking for “Hound Dog”--even when he was trying to do his own songs. Frustrated, he moved to Los Angeles briefly in the early ‘80s, hoping to escape the Elvis reputation back home. But it didn’t work out and he returned to the East Coast.

Seaton released an album on Rounder Records a couple of years ago, but his career was pretty much stalled when he heard about “Elvis.” Intrigued by the challenge of being in a “Broadway”-type show, he also thought it could lead to other acting roles.

Seaton admires Presley, but he also likes several other ‘50s rockers and scores of contemporary musicians, from Dave Edmunds to Bruce Springsteen.

“I’ve studied a lot of Presley’s footage and, like any actor, I try to take from that and use it to my advantage,” he said as he smiled and curled his lip playfully a la Presley. “But, hey, I’m not like some of those guys in the auditions who think they are Elvis. In the end, man, I’m just Johnny.”

An ‘Elvis Freak’

Like Seaton, Terry Mike Jeffrey, who doubles in the show as musical director, hopes “Elvis” is a stepping stone to bigger things. At the same time, he’s thrilled to be associated with a salute to Presley. He is a self-confessed “Elvis freak.”

Before he entered grade school, the Kentuckian had won trophies in talent show contests--singing Elvis songs with just collar turned up just like the King. And he saw “Blue Hawaii” 19 times the week it came out in 1961.

Though he doesn’t look much like Presley (his face is longer and his features are less cherubic), Jeffrey projected in the rehearsal the youthful eagerness and desire of a singer just starting out. As he sang one of Elvis’ earliest recordings, you could picture the time when he, like Presley, was a teen-ager trying to find his way in the music business.

In those days, Jeffrey spent a lot of time with his band in Memphis, hoping to meet Elvis again. He became good friends there with Elvis’ guitar player, Charlie Hodge, and visited Graceland several times.

Jeffrey and his band were in Phoenix in 1977 when they heard of Elvis’ death. He immediately called Hodge, who invited him to the funeral.

When Jeffrey arrived at Graceland, he said, Hodge greeted them briefly before going upstairs to join the rest of the family. That left the young singer and his drummer alone with Elvis’ body for several minutes on the main floor of the house, he said.

“It was freaking me out,” he recalled during an interview following one of the rehearsals. “I told my drummer, ‘You know we are the only two people in the world with Elvis right now.”

Jeffrey said he then reached down and touched Elvis’ sideburns and face and eyebrows.

Soooooo Close

Whitaker, too, was like a man on a cloud in New York.

Though his deep-set eyes and jagged cheek bones make him appear more like Robert Mitchum than Elvis, his own deep feeling for Presley serves in a song like “My Way” to add a melancholy quality to his vocal and manner. He not only seems to relate to Elvis’ downfall because he cared for Presley, but because of his own failed musical dreams.

Whitaker never actually met Elvis. The closest he came was the time he and his wife stood near the backstage door of a Baltimore arena and saw Elvis’ outline through the darkened limo window.

Until now, Whitaker’s musical career has been limited chiefly to weekend performances--doing Elvis impersonations (he dyes his hair black like Elvis and has his own jump suits) or country-Western tunes, whatever the customers wanted.

His closest brush with stardom came in 1984. While laid-off from the GM plant, he recorded a single in Nashville with former Elvis-backing musicians and had a 21-state tour lined up. The dream fell apart, however, when GM called him back to work just before the tour was to have started.

“It broke my heart when they called but I had to think of my family,” he said, backstage following the final Shubert rehearsal. “I tried to get a leave of absence, but they were calling hundreds of people back to work and they said there was no way they could make an exception. If I didn’t go back, I would have blown 13 years of seniority.”

The “Elvis” show, he suggested during a later interview in New Haven, was a reprieve for his dreams. He was able to tour the country this time because GM had given him a year’s leave of absence.

Would he have quit to be in the show?

Standing with his wife outside the small dressing room he shared with Jeffrey, he looked at the floor and thought about the question.

In his silence, his wife spoke up, determinedly, “I wouldn’t have let him give up his chance again.”

Mounting Pressure

The actors had come down to earth--hard--by the time opening night neared a few weeks later at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven.

The theater, a short walk from the Yale campus in downtown New Haven, bills itself as the “Birthplace of the Nation’s Greatest Hits.” And, it’s true: more than 300 world and 50 American premieres have been held there, including Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” and “My Fair Lady.”

But it wasn’t tradition that put the pressure on Seaton, Jeffrey and Whitaker. The euphoria of being in a major theatrical production had been replaced by the need to deliver.

Elvis had always made it seem so easy on stage--and that naturalness may be one of the reasons people like Presley and Kennedy and King are so inspirational. They move through their public life with such understated grace and confidence that they make our dreams, whatever the form, seem so very possible.

Those dreams had carried Seaton and--especially--Jeffrey and Whitaker a long way, but dreams have a way in the end of becoming a weight.

The first show was just six hours away and the atmosphere in the Shubert was tense as director Pat Birch moved the actors through key scenes, double-checking the timing to see if the film and the action was indeed in place.

Six hours before curtain time, Jeffrey was on stage, his back to the audience, playing the teen-age Elvis during his first recording session. In the scene, a record producer is telling Elvis that he needs to be more raw, more Southern. Elvis then begins playing with an old blues number--and, just as it happened years ago in Memphis, rock’s greatest star had found his sound. The producer signals his approval.

At that moment, Jeffrey spins around and faces the audience, his face reflecting the joy of Elvis’ discovery. It’s a familiar scene in Presley history and Jeffrey plays it well. The timing is a bit ragged, but there is time to work on that. Still, there is some concern among those evaluating the performance about Jeffrey’s appearance. Will the audience be disappointed that Jeffrey doesn’t look more like Elvis?

Next up, Seaton goes through a spoof of all the corny Elvis movies of the ‘60s. He dresses up as a soldier, life guard and boxer--singing the same song regardless of the costume. He exudes charisma and moves well. Everyone is pleased. He’s a winner.

The most attention in the theater was on Whitaker. Where Seaton stands as a memory of Elvis’ best times, Whitaker represents the sad times. In the musical’s most dramatic moment, Whitaker portrays a near-death Elvis singing “My Way” to his school-age daughter.

He seemed hesitant as he moved to his mark in the darkness, but he turned the number into a passionate statement of dread. There was balance of regret and bravado when Elvis sang the song on stage, but there is more urgency and heartache in Whitaker’s voice. Unlike Presley, Whitaker knows death is at hand and he struggles as if trying to keep Elvis passing from us once again.

Backstage Mood

Backstage after the performance, the cast and crew were in good spirits. The show had problems--far too much time spent retracing often-told points in Presley’s life rather than applying an arresting or provocative vision that helps us better understand the tragedy of this man who touched a generation so strongly.

Fisher, Birch and Rabinowitz acknowledged there was lots of work to be done before Vegas, possibly whole scenes redesigned or dropped. But they seemed generally pleased with the performers.

Rabinowitz was worried about the Las Vegas audience. He was used to theater crowds--not showroom crowds in a gambling resort. “I don’t want this interpreted as a lounge show,” he said. “I don’t want people going to see it because they want a rest from the gambling tables.”

Ironically, those same concerns about the nature of Vegas audiences were raised in 1969 when Elvis made his first comeback here. Vegas just wasn’t Elvis’ crowd, observers warned. But Hilton entertainment director Tom Willer saw “Elvis” in New Haven and said he was pleased.

Meanwhile, well-wishers backstage congratulated Seaton; a few even asked for autographs. He was looking ahead to Las Vegas, but no more than to Cleveland or Houston. “I just love being in front of an audience,” he said, flashing that disarming smile.

Across the room, Whitaker stood with his wife and teen-age son. Still in the jeweled Elvis jump suit, he was looking forward to Las Vegas.

“I always felt like that my life, as far as music was concerned, was not complete,” he said wistfully. “I may have played in front of a lot of people and gotten some nice comments, but I never had something that would (enable me to) sit back in the rocking chair and say, ‘Gee I did that.’

“Well, this thing--playing Elvis on stage at the Hilton in a show like this . . . this is that for me.”