Elvis Musical Comes to Jacksonville

The King of Rock-n-Roll will be alive and well Saturday, Jan. 28 at the Times-Union Center Moran Theater. Elvis Lives!, a live multimedia production sponsored by The Artist Series, will be taking place at 8:00. The show will include a number of Elvis tribute performers, including finalists from the Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest. Each performer will portray Elvis in one of four eras of his work: the Rockabilly Elvis of the 1950s, the veteran musician of the sixties, the Elvis who took a hiatus to embark on a movie career and the Elvis who returned in the 1970s. The act also includes Lori Russo, who will be impersonating Ann-Margret, the British actress who co-starred in Viva Las Vegas with Elvis and later had an affair with him.

Elvis Lives! got its start with the Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest, an event held annually since 2007 to find "the best representation of the legacy of Elvis Presley" in an Elvis Presley tribute artist. The contest proved successful, with more than 500,000 people attending, and it culminated into a tour featuring the finalists in 2010. The tour was a success, and it has been enhanced to appeal to an even greater demographic for its sophomore tour.

Elvis Presley was one of the early pioneers of rock-n-roll, spawning hits such as "Blue Suede Shoes" and "Heartbreak Hotel" in the mid 1950's, inspiring acts everywhere, from the Beatles to Lady Gaga, and indirectly inspiring thousands more. Since his death in 1977, there have been countless Elvis tribute performers. Elvis Lives! takes the medium of tribute performance to a whole new level, with dance numbers, elements of Broadway theatre and even imagery from the archives of Graceland. Elvis Lives! intends to carry on the legacy of the King of Rock-n-Roll.