‘Blue Suede Shoes’ Pumps Up the Spectacle

It’s a pity that Elvis Presley’s 1968 recording of “Too Much Monkey Business” isn’t among the three dozen Presley hits that accompany Dennis Nahat’s ballet “Blue Suede Shoes,” since this classic Chuck Berry song makes an ideal epitaph for Nahat’s maniacally trivial 1996 vehicle for Cleveland San Jose Ballet.

Nahat’s rock extravaganza arrived at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Tuesday for a seven-performance run, complete with spectacular fluorescent sets and witty period costumes by veteran show-biz designer Bob Mackie. A 50-dancer company performs tirelessly, even heroically. But the choreography remains so desperately intent on flinging virtuoso step-combinations in your teeth that the ballet stays a hard-sell divertissement for nearly its entire 86-minute length--and not all that different from “Quicksilver,” Nahat’s aggressive, overloaded 1980 showpiece to Mendelssohn, which opens the program.

Using Presley tracks dating from the mid-’50s to the late-’60s, “Blue Suede Shoes” tackles the same task that Paul Taylor assumed with his Andrews Sisters ballet “Company B” and which the new musical “Ragtime” explores at length: linking the popular music of a turbulent era with the changing values and obsessions of American society during the same period. Divided into seven sections, the plot follows the fortunes of three oh-so-typical guys from Royal High School: the blond letterman named Johnny (Matthew Gasper), who suffers from romance problems; the spectacled Arthur (Raymond Rodriguez), who keeps dreaming of his mother while he caresses her Bible; and the socially conscious Raymond (Raymon Thielen), who dances “Love Me Tender” while cradling the American flag.

Does it matter that these characters are, respectively, white, Latino and African American? Yes, it does, though only fleetingly as it turns out, but it matters more that they are portrayed by dancing athletes of exceptional technical power and stamina, for they’re required to shake, rattle and roll from the drive-in to the Army to the inevitable Heartbreak Hotel, County Jail and beyond--virtually without letup. Along the way, they become progressively tempted by Long Tall Sally (Ana Lobe) and menaced by Boss Man (Mark Tomasic). But their greatest threat is Nahat himself, who has no interest in atmosphere, lyricism, movement characterization or choreographic development--just the pileup of shtick and showpiece effects that make “Blue Suede Shoes” increasingly repetitive, predictable and dependent on Mackie.

Indeed, it is Mackie alone who saves the “Saturday Night” sequence from its mindless sprawl by clothing the resident villain in an amazing double-breasted, bell-bottomed, yellow-and-black pimp suit that doesn’t so much stop the show as give it an incandescent central focus. And it is Mackie alone who makes the finale memorable by putting all the dancers in gleaming white-and-gold transformations of their previous costumes, thus creating a 24-carat apotheosis from the shabbiest recapitulated dance motifs.

With Laurel Skousen, Julia Ortega, Olivier Munoz and Karen Gabay also displaying admirable prowess, “Blue Suede Shoes” works incessantly to entertain--and there are always those 36 Elvis master tapes provided by RCA Records to enjoy. But Nahat never risks abandoning classical, pop and gymnastic stunts long enough to do what “Company B” and “Ragtime” did so feelingly: take us beyond formula nostalgia and showmanship into a backdated musical idiom and a lost world to reveal their deepest emotions and most indelible legacies.

* “Blue Suede Shoes,” Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave. Tonight through Saturday, 8 p.m.; also Saturday and Sunday, 2 p.m. $15-$50. (213) 365-3500.