Elvis, Live (on Videotape) in Concert

Elvis has returned to the building.

In March, Elvis Presley will bring a 2 1/2-hour show to New York’s Radio City Music Hall for three nights, backed by his original touring cast--J.D. Sumner & the Stamps, the Sweet Inspirations, the TCB Band led by guitarist James Burton and a 16-piece orchestra conducted by his longtime musical director, Joe Guercio. The same event set an attendance record last August at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, where it was the centerpiece of . . . the 20th anniversary of Presley’s death.

Welcome to a brave new world of posthumous performance. The Presley dates mark the first time a deceased entertainer has headlined a show and toured with it.

“Elvis--The Concert” is breaking new ground by melding live musicians and backup singers with video images of Presley, mostly taken from his concert films in the ‘70s. It’s an expansion on the process that produced video duets reuniting singer Natalie Cole with her late father, Nat King Cole, and Hank Williams Jr. with his even later father, Hank Williams.

Until now, however, there has never been a full concert built around the video legacy of a deceased star, but the time may be right. After all, concert audiences, particularly those in larger venues, are already used to looking at video screens that amplify images of what might otherwise be stick figures on a faraway stage. They’re so desensitized to the real experience that a facsimile might serve just as well.

From Jimi Hendrix to Tupac Shakur, it’s become clear that death need not be a hindrance to artists’ careers; in fact, more Hendrix albums were released after he died than before. Now, death need not curtail concert tours, and some legendary groups missing a member here and there could “reunite.” Jerry Garcia could front the Grateful Dead once again. John Lennon could rejoin the Beatles, Jim Morrison could reopen the Doors, John Bonham could power Led Zeppelin. All that is dependent on the availability of video images. In Elvis’ case, there was a series of filmed concerts that provided full footage. But the Beatles stopped touring in 1966, and there’s very little concert footage of them in their prime--and most of it is overwhelmed by the sound of screaming fans. And the Grateful Dead may have been taped at just about every concert they ever did, but that was audiotape, not video.

With the success of “Elvis--The Concert,” some managers might try to ensure perpetuity (and protect their investments) by collecting lots of performance footage. Call it defensive cloning.

According to Todd Morgan of Elvis Presley Enterprises, “Elvis--The Concert” began to take shape five years ago when the Presley estate got involved with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra’s annual pops concert, giving the orchestra access to Presley’s original concert arrangements so that it could do an entire show of Elvis music, with a local vocal group and J.D. Sumner & the Stamps singing. “No Elvis,” Morgan says. “We don’t do the imitator thing--ever.”

As an experiment, the concert also featured a video of Presley singing his “American Trilogy.”

“It went over great,” Morgan says. “The production was primitive, but it was very well received.” The following year, the concert featured three Presley “performances”; the next year, six.

Because August 1997 would be the 20th anniversary of Presley’s death, EPE decided to “get together everyone who ever worked with him and put on the be-all, end-all reunion concert,” Morgan explains, pointing out that it would be the first time an anniversary celebration brought that many Presley band mates back together. By then, the success of those concerts suggested Presley himself could once again be the star of the show.

And so the process began, under the direction of Stig Edgren of SEG Events, who had produced the concert version of “Unforgettable,” the Natalie Cole-Nat Cole duet, as well as the 1994 pay-per-view Presley tribute. The main image sources were three Presley concert films: 1970’s “Elvis--That’s the Way It Is,” 1972’s “Elvis--On Tour” and 1973’s satellite broadcast “Elvis--Aloha From Hawaii.”

This footage is prime Elvis, both musically and physically.

The “concert” is constructed logically: In other words, there are no abrupt costume or hairstyle changes. Songs are grouped together in mini-sets constructed in such a way that it seems as if Presley has simply gone offstage and come back after changing.

Presley’s vocals have been isolated from the original recordings and all the other music has been dropped out so that the musicians are playing it live. Musical director Guercio insists, “It’s not a memorial by any stretch, it’s a rock ‘n’ roll show.”