'Jailhouse Rock' is a Karaoke Bore

LONDON -- "Jailhouse Rock" doesn't have much going for it as a West End musical, not even the song that gives the show its title.

Elvis Presley Enterprises, which apparently wants the classic Jerry Leiber-Mike Stoller rouser for its own Broadway-bound Elvis musical, wouldn't license the rights. But the current London show at the Piccadilly Theatre is able to use the title of the 1957 Presley movie without its best-known song.

It's like mounting the musical "Mamma Mia!" without being able to use the song "Mamma Mia!" But such issues turn out to be the least of the problems with this stage incarnation of "Jailhouse Rock," which is little more than a karaoke bore.

"Jailhouse Rock" is part of a West End trend that was more or less set in motion by "Mamma Mia!" - the ABBA songfest that now looks like a model of sophistication compared to some of the shows that have followed.

The West End already has "We Will Rock You" and "Tonight's the Night," scored to the music of Queen and Rod Stewart, respectively. And in the same none-too-honorable tradition, it now has "Jailhouse Rock," in which a lot of bad American accents are heard for more than two hours until the show finally gives up any pretense at telling a story and lets the audience get to their feet and bop.

The Presley movie casts him as a hot-tempered rock 'n' roller with a prison past who manages to square life on a chain gang with renditions of, among others, "Treat Me Nice," "Don't Leave Me Now" and the title song.

For the stage musical version, Alan Janes and Rob Bettinson, creators of the West End's one-time Buddy Holly sing-along, "Buddy," have scoured the Presley back catalog and come up with 23 numbers, the majority of which fall to newcomer Mario Kombou in the Presley role as Vince Everett.

Kombou has the requisite Elvis quiff, and he captures the alternately silken and raucous Presley sounds that go with such standards as "Burnin' Love," "Blue Suede Shoes" and "The Wonder of You."

But Kombou seems noticeably less comfortable swiveling his hips in a vain attempt to generate any sexual excitement: The performer comes across as a nice enough guy trying to play a bad and dangerous one, with the result that there's a blank at the heart of the show.

It's probably not worth taking too seriously a feeble production (the director is co-writer Bettinson) that finds Vince imprisoned when he accidentally kills a man at a dance. In the clink, he quickly discovers his skill as a crooner, which - wouldn't you know it? - sets him on the path to stardom at the price of whatever humility and generosity he may once have had.

Few in the audience are likely to be interested in "Jailhouse Rock" as a moral parable, even if Vince does get the obligatory scene where he is forced to confront himself in the mirror.

The show's true reason for being are the songs, which come accompanied by "Stomp"-style choreography from Drew Anthony that goes heavy on the banging and makes heavily percussive use of Adrian Rees' dreary jail cell set.

As the audience gets up to boogie (the best of the numbers, "Pretty Little Angel Eyes," comes early in the first act), criticism ceases to matter. Whatever else it may or may not be, you can say this for "Jailhouse Rock": It's a great cure for jet lag.

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