This time, he swears that it is indeed the last time: Martin Fontaine will put away the King’s costumes at the end of a final series of performances of the Elvis Experience, where it all began, at the Théâtre Capitole in Quebec, in December, learned Le Journal.
“I hang my wig permanently. The man is 57 years old and I am now a trader. We had a great run,” says Martin Fontaine, who has been operating the Memphis Cabaret in Trois-Rivières since 2018.
Fans of Martin Fontaine suspected that he would return to the Capitol since a summer Quebec tour of the Elvis Experience was announced. Concerts were planned in Gatineau, Montreal, Trois-Rivières and Saguenay, but not in Quebec.
“It’s crazy the number of people who asked us on Facebook why we weren’t doing Quebec and we answered: ah, that’s how it is,” laughs Martin Fontaine.
However, agree MM. Fontaine and Pilote, it was unthinkable to come full circle anywhere other than on the stage where the Elvis Story and Elvis Experience shows have been performed more than 1,300 times since 1995. “That’s where we built everything,” says Martin Fontaine.
Emotions in view
Twenty-seven years later, the curtain will fall one last time on New Year’s Eve. Fifteen performances of The Elvis Experience – The Final Act, in a Blue Christmas version adapted for the holiday season, are on view from December 7 to 31.
Emotions promise to run high.
“For the moment, shares the most famous impersonator of Elvis in Quebec, I am in denial. I say it’s going to be okay, but watch me go on the 31st, I’m going to have a heavy heart.
The producer Jean Pilote, accomplice since the beginning of the one who has become a friend, also expects a moving finale. “On December 31, something is going to happen,” says the man for whom it will also be a return to the Capitol, two years after selling all his shares in the two performance halls, the hotel and the Il Teatro restaurant.
Immortal Elvis
Will the interest in Quebec for the work of the King, who died suddenly at the age of 42 on August 16, 1977, survive the end of the musical reviews that Martin Fontaine had painstakingly created?
Jean Pilote believes so, thanks in particular to the biographical film Elvis, by filmmaker Baz Luhrmann, which will be released this summer after its world premiere at Cannes.
“I saw the trailer and it looks amazing. It will bring Elvis back into the news for the younger generations,” he said.
Who knows, adds Martin Fontaine, maybe in ten years other artists will want to follow in his footsteps and bring Elvis back to life on stage?
“We hope so,” he said. There are subjects like that that are immortal.”
Tickets to see The Elvis Experience – The Final Act Blue Christmas are on sale now.
