Elvis Experience a well-studied performance

The photo above is of last season’s run at Le Capitole, Quebec City. Martin Fontaine as Elvis Presley in ‘Elvis Experience’ at Le Capitole, Quebec City. Wed 12 August 2015. Photo credit: Andrew Greenfield.

Martin Fontaine slips into final season of Tennessee time warp at Le Capitole

By Michael Bourguignon

Québec’s favourite Elvis Presley tribute artist is about to leave the building. After three successful seasons at Le Capitole, Martin Fontaine opened the final, 30-show season of Elvis Experience on July 20.

To call Fontaine a mere Elvis impersonator would do him a disservice, because it’s plain to see the years of study and practice the singer-actor has put into faithfully reproducing the music, look, persona and mannerisms of the King of Rock and Roll.

From the moment the curtain rose and he backwards-walked across the stage, very much à la Vegas-era Elvis, Fontaine was the King. At least as Presley is remembered from the latter years of his career, on the Las Vegas circuit of the early 1970s, which is what Elvis Experience attempts to recreate.

With the trademark sideburns and jumpsuits, and an impressive display of 32 equally retro-dressed musicians and backup singers behind him, Fontaine did indeed manage to transport his audience to another time and place.
From the energy of Jailhouse Rock to the sentiment of Love Me Tender, Fontaine delivered all the expected hits and more.

The musical journey was guided in part by photos and footage projected onto a giant screen at the back of the stage, used to full effect to put moments in historical context or to suggest what certain songs might have truly meant to Elvis himself.

It’s in the attempt to convey the emotion behind the music legend that Elvis Experience sometimes fell flat, a fact acknowledged in overheard conversations among disappointed patrons who had somehow expected more.

What the show lacked in passion, it made up in accuracy, as Fontaine’s well-studied mannerisms – from Presley’s climactic karate moves to the way he stood and spoke to the audience – made it feel like the real thing. So much so that when the big screen showed a black-and-white film clip of an audience watching Elvis perform the same song as Fontaine was, it took a moment to realize that the clip was actually a live shot of the performance in progress at Le Capitole.

That same audience seemed to grow more appreciative after the intermission, when the energy level seemed to rise, both in the concert hall and in Fontaine himself. Perhaps he got his second wind during a well-deserved break.

The pace of the show appears to be a demanding one for the artist, who, never breaking character, stepped off to the side for rejuvenating gulps of water after almost every song.

Whatever it was, he managed to get the front of the house on its feet and dancing in the second half of the show.

This is a show – and a performer – that has earned the blessing of none other than the King’s widow, Priscilla Presley. So considering this was the opening night of the season, Fontaine has time of find his feet in those well-worn blue suede shoes.