Cash and Elvis tribute: worth it?

Should you book it?

Say yes if hearing songs you have known for years, sung live in a room where the performer can see your face, sounds like the right night out. Couples, friends travelling together and families with a soft spot for either man are the natural audience, and the show slots neatly after a long day in the mountains, because it asks nothing of tired legs. Skip it if you want a big production with a cast, a meal served at your table, or the chance to hear one specific song: none of those are on offer. This is a compact, music-first evening, and its strengths are the songs and the closeness.

One performer, two songbooks

The show is built on a single idea: one tribute performer carries both catalogues, moving between the low, steady voice associated with Johnny Cash and the rock and roll and ballads associated with Elvis Presley. That is a demanding brief. Cash was known for a deep, calm bass-baritone, while Presley's energetic performing style brought him both great success and controversy in the 1950s. Part of the pleasure of the night is hearing how one singer handles that contrast. Who that singer is depends on the theatre, which sets the cast; this guide does not name performers, and nothing here should be read as a promise about a particular person on a particular date.

What a tribute is, and isn't

The English Wikipedia defines a tribute act as a performer or band devoted to one famous act's songs. Many go further and copy the vocal style and look of the original as closely as they can; others put their own twist on the songs. Presley has attracted imitators almost from the start: impersonators were performing as early as the mid-1950s, just after his career began, and professionals today are often billed as Elvis tribute artists. What you are buying, then, is a performer's interpretation of two famous careers. It is not either man, it is not a recording, and the best tribute nights embrace that rather than hide it.

General admission, explained

General admission means your ticket gets you into the room, but no seat is assigned to it. Seats are taken in the order people arrive. In a small theatre that is less of a gamble than it sounds, since no seat is far from the stage, but it still shapes your evening. Arrive early if you care where you sit. Arrive together if your group wants to sit side by side, because saving a row for latecomers rarely goes down well. And if anyone in your party needs an aisle, an easy exit or space for a wheelchair, being among the first through the door is the surest way to get it. The time on your confirmation is when the music starts, not when to leave home.

Ninety minutes, and the rest of the evening

The performance runs for an hour and a half. That leaves room for dinner before or after, and the ticket includes no food, so the choice is yours. In practice most people build the evening around the show: an early meal, the drive along the Parkway, time to park and choose a seat, then the tribute. Allow for the walk in as well as the show itself. If the evening is the only free one in your trip, book the show first and fit dinner around it. Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead means a booking made early costs nothing if your plans change.

The songs you might hear

No set list is promised, and you should be wary of any page that offers one. The programme draws on the hits of both men, and the choice and order belong to the performer on the night. What can be said is how wide the two catalogues are. Cash's music embraced country, rock and roll, rockabilly, blues, folk and gospel, and Presley was commercially successful in pop, country, rock and roll, rockabilly, rhythm and blues, adult contemporary and gospel. Expect familiar choruses and an invitation to sing along. If one song matters more to you than the rest, enjoy it if it comes, but do not book on the strength of it.

Why these two belong together

Pairing Cash with Presley is not an arbitrary choice. Both began at Sun Records in Memphis, the label Sam Phillips founded in 1952, which was the first to record either of them. On 4 December 1956, Presley, by then signed to RCA Victor, dropped in on a session at Sun, and a newspaper photograph of him at the piano with Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Cash appeared under the headline Million Dollar Quartet. Accounts of Cash's part in the music differ, and the guide to the Sun years sets them out. Cash's Wikipedia biography adds that, other than Presley, he was the only artist inducted as a performer into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

A small theatre in a town of theatres

Pigeon Forge is a small city in Sevier County, Tennessee, a few miles north of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and a tourist destination that caters mainly to fans of Southern culture and country music. Its attractions include numerous musical theatres, most of them along US 441, the Parkway. Among those shows, this one is at the intimate end: a single performer, a small room and a ticket without a meal. Several of the larger productions build their evenings around casts, stunts and suppers. If you have seen one of those already, a tribute night offers a different kind of evening, closer to a concert than a spectacle.

Who this isn't for

Anyone hoping for the real voice of either man, which no tribute can give. Groups who want dinner served as part of the ticket, since there is none. Visitors who need a guaranteed, numbered seat, because seating is general admission. Fans set on hearing one particular song, as nobody can promise it. And travellers who cannot reach the theatre in good time, because in an unreserved room a late arrival usually means the seats nobody else wanted. For everyone else, the format is simple and the risk is low.

What it costs, without the numbers

This is a show-only ticket, which puts it well below the dinner shows in town, which fold a full meal into their price. The calendar lists today's price for the night you pick, convertible to your home currency, and totals it before checkout. There are no extras built in, so the only other costs on the night are the ones you choose: dinner, drinks and parking.

Booking it well

Pick your date in the calendar and book rather than relying on a walk-up seat, because shows are likely to sell out. If your plans are still moving, hold the seats now and pay later. On the night, arrive early, come together and keep dinner separate. If you are still deciding between this and a dinner show, the comparison guide weighs the two against each other, course by course and minute by minute.

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