Why has London's new immersive Elvis Presley show been so controversial – and is it really that bad?

Time Out

3 days ago

As Time Out's theatre editor I tend to be responsible for most of our immersive coverage as well, but I wasn't able to make the big opening night for London's long gestating new Elvis Presley experience Elvis Evolution. So rather than see it with celebrities or invited guests, I ended up joining one of the first public performances of the show.
I didn't go in with any particular expectations of what it would involve and personally I had a decent time, with some reservations. But I thought the first half was perfectly enjoyable: slick, reasonably informative, and I didn't have any problem with it focussing on Elvis's childhood best friend Sam Bell as a way to take a different look at The King.
🎤 The official Time Out review of Elvis Evolution.
The focus of the second half is Elvis's legendary 1968 comeback TV special. Stood milling around waiting for the 'live performance', it was here that I first realised a portion of the audience was on the cusp of mutiny: a lot of them clearly hadn't enjoyed the first half, and were muttering to each other that they were hoping for something spectacular from the concert section, with at least two groups in my earshot referencing the blockbuster ABBA Voyage concert experience in Stratford.
Elvis Evolution is in fact nothing like ABBA Voyage, or not much like it: we get a trio of live musicians playing along to highlights of the 1968 TV special, which have apparently been sharpened up digitally for the big screen but basically look like a blown up version of something you could easily watch on YouTube.
Some of my fellow audience members were not happy. Some booed. Some left early. Many did look like they were having a good time – the '68 special is a really good performance – but it is rare to hear what I might call a theatre audience so audibly disgruntled.
Fast forward a couple of days and disillusioned attendees of Elvis Evolution are making headlines on the BBC website and in the tabloids and the show is in real danger of getting framed as an unmitigated disaster. But is that fair? Let's dig in a bit.
Were audiences promised an ABBA Voyage -style concert experience?
To be clear, there was never going to be an ABBA Voyage -style Elvis experience. That show requires a special dedicated concert arena, millions of pounds of tech development, and moreover the enthusiastic participation of ABBA themselves, who are all still alive. Elvis famously left the building decades ago.
But just because an ABBA Voyage -alike experience was unlikely doesn't mean audiences didn't expect one. When the show was announced way back in January 2024, 'holographic projections' were promised (in practise this almost always means a Victorian illusion called Pepper's Ghost, as actual holographic projection doesn't really exist).
In at least one interview Andrew McGuinness, founder of show creators Layered Reality used ABBA Voyage as a reference point ('it's a fusion of theatre, cinema and something like ABBA Voyage '). Although Layered Reality have been upfront about the fact there was no longer a holographic element and subsequent interviews sought to play down any similarities to ABBA Voyage, it's fair to say none of this had the cut through of the initial announcement.
Perhaps more relevantly, it's probably true to say that ABBA Voyage has not only massively raised the bar for expectations of a concert experience from a defunct musical act, but it's virtually become the sole reference point. If ABBA Voyage didn't exist, I have a feeling Elvis Evolution would have got a much less rough ride.
Is Elvis Evolution overpriced?
Elvis Evolution starts at £75 a ticket. This doesn't stack up horribly against West End stalls prices, but it's a lot for a show that doesn't have anyone famous in it and leans heavily on pre-recorded sections. It was clearly pretty expensive to develop and has a good number of actors and musicians per performance, so £20 fringe type prices are clearly a pipe dream, but it would probably take the edge off people's complaints if tickets were around half what they are now, though it's impossible for me to say whether that's financially viable or not.
It's very difficult to look at the VIP packages and conclude that they're good value: both the £180 Burning Love package and £300 If I Can Dream package offer little more than around £40 worth of cocktails, a bit of reserved seating, and a few miscellaneous souvenir bits.
Having three different bar venues seems excessive and suggests that extracting further money from ticket holders is a central part of the show's business model. And as a sidenote, if your audience is encouraged to be two cocktails down by the concert scene don't be surprised if they're a bit lairy.
Is Elvis Evolution a bad show?
In all honestly I thought it was a decent piece of immersive theatre. But I wasn't really coming at it from a 'massive Elvis fan' perspective. There have been some complaints about the first half focussing on the obscure character of Sam Bell. I don't think this was cynically done at all and was probably aiming to offer an interesting new perspective on Elvis, a figure whose biography everyone who buys a ticket will be well aware of already. Probably it would have gone down better if it had been a more straightforward hagiography.
I should also say that the people booing were a minority and that the peak of disgruntlement came when it became apparent that the 'concert' would simply be the special: my audience seemed a lot happier by the end and had mostly enjoyed the band augmented playback of the special.
Nonetheless, it's hard to imagine the current backlash will help Elvis Evolution, and some sort of rethink – if only of its marketing – is surely is order if it's to make to the end of its current December booking period.