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We got a series of pretentious and unfunny vaudeville sketches that dimly and distortingly alluded to Elvis's life and work, but without either analyzing or satirizing him, or making any kind of comprehensible point. The whole thing just maundered on smugly and murkily, reminding me of the joke: What
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The main poster for the play consisted of the idiosyncratic
Presley hair-style set against a yellow background, with 'HIM' in large, pink lettering in the center. Walken requested such imagery, as it was his main physical impression of Presley. Walken himself spends a large amount of time during the
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taking place, often showing up as a ghost on Earth to fool people into believing that
Presley was still alive. Presley relives his death, expressing annoyance at the decision of doctors to terminate life support. He continues to commentate through several surreal scenes, including a segment where a
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Walken does not utilize many impressions of
Presley other than clothing and hair style, instead singing in his own voice, with an occasional "Tennessee Williams-style" accent. Musical Direction and Sound Design was done by Mike Nolan, who led the band, "Organ Donor." The band played the show live
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stated that "You write good strong sentences - not true of every actor who takes up playwriting - and your reflections on the strange state we call celebrity in
America aren't foolish. But you haven't written a play yet. Disjointed as modern art has been, loose remarks, anecdotes, and routines
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writes that "When he dons Elvis's cape, he seems ready to take flight." However the New York
Magazine theatre critic, John Simon, referred to it as "garbage" and "maudlin masturbation". He describes Walken's performance as self-indulgent and scornful.
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foam-likeness of
Presley is tossed around the stage, and when four men dressed in underwear mourn at Presley's graveside. The plot continues, re-telling Presley's death as a disappearing act which enabled Presley to flee to
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operation to become "her". A truck driver (Heyman) who recognises
Presley, now a waitress at a "truckstop", as the aged rock-star, narrates this segment while wrestling with feelings of sympathy and
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around a theme still don't add up to a dramatic form." Other critics agreed on Walken's performance as "strange and rambling" or a "farrago of nonsense" while critics Thomas
Hischak and
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The play was deemed as a "workshop" and ran for three weeks of previews followed by thirteen performances. It ran for 75 minutes at each showing, with no intermissions.
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every night in the stage right orchestra pit. The original music, written by Mike Nolan and Scott
Williams, was contemporary to the audience rather than to Presley.
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Presley grows exasperated with his brother in the afterlife, and returns to earth to alter his life by fleeing his fame and hiding in
Morocco.
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play in a green velvet jumpsuit and a cape as he plays Presley, aside from the end scenes as the waitress where he dresses in "female garb".
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do you get if you cross a mafioso with a deconstructionist? An offer you can't understand.
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depicts Presley (Walken), now deceased and in the afterlife (specifically,
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All Access: The Making of Thirty Extrodinary Graphic Designers
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many years previously. Rob is responsible for the numerous
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identified it as the oddest play in New York that year.
28:, who also took the lead role, and which debuted in the
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Images of Elvis Presley in American Culture, 1977-1997
336:"THEATER REVIEW: HIM; Walken Conjures Up The King"
364:"The Tak of the Town, "Walken on the Wild Side""
271:. Celebrating Christopher Walken. Archived from
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269:"Christopher Walken - The Song and Dance Man"
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499:Cultural depictions of Elvis Presley
166:Michael Evans - Drums and Percussion
362:Wolcott, James (January 9, 1995).
334:Canby, Vincent (January 6, 1995).
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448:New York Teathre Critics' Reviews
468:Vol. 28, No. 5. (New York, 1995)
24:is a 1995 play written by actor
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163:- Organ, Sampler, Synthesizer
89:- Al/Disappointed Fan/Stylagi
30:New York Shakespeare Festival
409:Hischak and Bordman, p. 369.
244:"Review by Michael Feingold"
77:- Doc/Borden/Taxman/Stylagi
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95:- Nurse/Dolores/Journalist
494:Plays about the afterlife
32:. It revolved around the
462:Big Famine, Small Feast
16:Christopher Walken play
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157:Scott Williams - Bass
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389:Plasketes, p. 103.
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60:Christopher Walken
48:Tennessee Williams
26:Christopher Walken
473:Plays and Players
466:New York Magazine
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475:(New York, 1995)
457:(New York, 1997)
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371:. Retrieved
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277:. Retrieved
273:the original
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248:the original
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192:A review by
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69:Rob Campbell
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87:Peter Appel
75:Larry Block
489:1995 plays
483:Categories
460:Simon, J.
435:References
373:2009-02-19
345:2009-02-18
279:2009-02-18
254:2007-03-25
135:sex change
188:Reception
122:stillborn
83:- Joe/Mel
34:afterlife
171:Artistry
100:Synopsis
131:Morocco
64:Him/Her
133:for a
43:Hamlet
504:Limbo
464:from
225:Notes
145:Music
118:limbo
71:- Rob
204:The
54:Cast
114:Him
36:of
21:Him
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