CLOC’ing up another hit

FOOTSCRAY musical theatre stalwart Robert Harsley will be back on the boards in a tribute to the King of Rock’n’Roll this month.

Harsley will take to the stage in CLOC Musical Theatre’s All Shook Up, a new musical set in the 1950s and based on nearly 30 of Elvis Presley’s hits.

Well known around the west as a regular performer with local theatre groups, Harsley has a long association with troupes such as Williamstown Little Theatre and Williamstown Musical Theatre Company.

He will appear as Jim, the father of female romantic lead Natalie.

The show marks his first production on the ‘other’ side of the city in five years.

“The last time was also a CLOC show — SHOUT! in 2007, in which I played another dad – Johnny O’Keefe’s father. I had such a great time in that show and I was waiting for the opportunity to do it all again so was thrilled to be offered this role,” Harsley says.

Although not a biography of Elvis, All Shook Up centres around a suspiciously similar leather-jacketed, motorbike-riding, guitar slinging, slick-haired roustabout whose arrival in a small US town sets the women swooning, the men reeling and the town on its ear.

All Shook Up runs from this Friday to October 20 at The National Theatre, St Kilda. Bookings: 1300 362 547, or cloc.org.au