By Lookout Staff

March 9, 2012 -- St. Monica will step back into the fifties this weekend with a student musical that pays tribute to Elvis Presley and his music.

Though not a biography of the lip-curling, hip-swiveling rocker, "All Shook Up" uses two dozen Elvis hits to tell the story of the surprise visit of a mysterious guitar-playing stranger in a leather jacket to a small middle American town in 1955.

Evan Gunnell plays the misterious stranger in "All Shook Up". Photos courtesy of St. Monica High School.

Before the roustabout, Chad (played by Evan Gunnell), leaves, the stranger has helped to fulfill the dream of a local girl (played by Ali Toia), fallen in love with another girl (played by Brenna Canelli) and tuned the insular town onto the magic of romance and the power of rock.  

It's a "musical fantasy that'll have you jumpin' out of your blue suede shoes with such classics as 'Heartbreak Hotel,' 'Jailhouse Rock,' and 'Don't Be Cruel,'" the show's promoters said.

Joe Dipietro, who wrote the book for the musical, which premiered on Broadway in 2005, was also inspired by the comedies of Shakespeare

Ali Toia plays the girl in love with the misterious stranger.

"The bottom line with Elvis's music is that it makes a lot of people very happy, even 50 years after it was recorded," Dipietro said in an interview posted on theatricalrights.com. "I thought, what other type of entertainment form does that? And that's when I came up with the Shakespeare comedies."

But in the end, it all comes back to the power of Elvis' music.

"This music unleashes the uptightness of these people in small town America," Dipietro said. "It's all about loving someone no matter who they are. That's what the show's about."

"All Shook Up" will be staged Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. at the auditorium at St. Monica High School, 1030 Lincoln Boulevard. Tickets for all performances can be purchased by emailing Ms. Tica O'Neill at toneill@stmonicahs.net.