Holding Court With an On-Screen King

The Premise: You re-create an Elvis Presley concert by combining concert footage of the most magnetic performer of the rock era with live music supplied by many of the actual musicians and singers who toured with him in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

The Question: Is this multimedia spectacle, titled “Elvis--The Concert,” an inspired concept, or are we talking P.T. Barnum here?

The Verdict Friday at the Universal Amphitheatre: The common-sense rule applies. If the idea of an Elvis concert without Elvis strikes you as corny, so will the show.

The Problem: No matter how you slice it, you just can’t escape the fact that Elvis really did leave the building in 1977.

The Show: The production does a good job of selecting Presley concert footage from various movies and TV specials, and the musicians (including guitarist James Burton and pianist Glen D. Hardin) faithfully deliver the Elvis sound. The footage is put together to give the sense of a real concert. Elvis, who is projected on a 20-odd-foot video screen above the live musicians, is shown walking on stage at the beginning of the evening and talking to the audience between the nearly three dozen songs.

The Audience: Most of the fans joined in the concert spirit. They laughed at Elvis’ jokes and even gave him a standing ovation in places. It’s almost as if the fans, most of whom were in their 40s or above, had also been reassembled to play a role--which, in a way, they had. These were d-e-v-o-t-e-d fans.

The Better Idea for Most of Us: Watch the original concert videos (on DVD preferably) at home on a good sound system. And note: With tickets as much as $69, a family of four could have saved enough money by skipping the concert to buy the DVD player.