On Stage: Recent

Elvisbride: Some Prepared Remarks to Clarify the Impending Jubilation

by Jayita Bhattacharya & Matt Test
with original music by Matt Test
January 23 – February 28, 2009
Part of the 20th Annual Rhinoceros Theater Festival Download the program by Nancy Kim (10 MB)

When Elvis Presley died in 1977, there were an estimated 37 Elvis impersonators in the world. By 1993, there were 48,000 Elvis impersonators, an exponential increase. Extrapolating from this, by 2010 there will be 2.5 billion Elvis impersonators. The population of the world will be 7.5 billion by 2010. Every 3rd person will be an Elvis impersonator by 2010. —San Francisco Chronicle, October 27, 1993

Curious Theatre Branch announces the premiere of a new tonal operetta for voice, orchestra, and analog television, beginning January 23rd at the Rhinoceros Theater Festival. A summation of all things quotidian, ominous, and immanently forgettable, Elvisbride: Some Prepared Remarks to Clarify the Impending Jubilation makes music from mystery as four actors, pretending to be friends in a diner, examine the fate of an Elvis impersonator while a famously beleaguered political figure prepares to make a terrible confession.

[E]xhibits highlights ranging from keeny-observed dialogue between Elvis-imitating men and the better-adjusted women who love them, to a knockout display of unpretentious video art....
Test and Magnus's catchy, Kurt Weill-lite score bops satisfyingly along.—Time Out

O'Reilly's meticulous, arch performance amplifies myriad subtleties in Matt Test and Jayita Bhattacharya's enticingly elusive text.—Chicago Reader

Featuring Julian Berke, Taylor Bibat, Jeffrey Bivens, Casey Cunningham, Troy Martin, Colm O'Reilly, Tom Rajt and Matt Test

Casey, Troy, and Colm (televised)

The song "Covered Up Our Tracks" from Elvisbride: Some Prepared Remarks to Clarify the Impending Jubilation

Jeff made this preview video, with one of Matt's scratch tracks and Colm as THE SENATOR