Meredith Beck rocks in roles that rattle expectations, exhorting strength from the stunted and strapped, extracting sensitivity from the self-centered and immersing herself in the emotional embers of exhausted relationships.
She can turn topsy-turvy characters right-side up, and flip the flippant into self-introspective messes.
Meredith Beck is all shook up.
Well, not her, but her characters often are. And where better to face the music — and the muse — than in "Elvis — A Musical Revolution," playing now through Nov. 5 at Walnut Street Theatre.
The musical explores the multidimensional and ofttimes misguided directions that The King's life connected to as he mapped out his heart and fears on stage and off, abetted often by a bevy of beauties who often couldn't comprehend his complexities or conceits.
But at least one did — Ann-Margret, the Swedish stunner who helped somewhat stabilize Presley's smorgasbord of a life.
The young and purr-fect Sex Kitten and the ageless oversexed hipster whose swaying, swiveling moves moved him to icon status from the '50s to his own 40s, when he died due to a mishmash of meds and the merciless abandonment of his health, made for American idols who idled at fast-forward.
The part beckons Beck like no other, she claims, and the "Viva" vixen she plays heats the script with high-octane fuel that matches Presley's ready-to-torch take on life that provided a burning love between the two.
When they're hot, they're hot — but that's no fatal flaw when it comes to Beck's fully realized roles as assayed on stages throughout the area. Her characters are a cache of classics and contemporaries that have carried this Doylestown darling to starring roles at respected regionals, such as the Bristol Riverside Theater, Bucks County Playhouse and the Bucks County Center for the Performing Arts.
"When you're playing an icon," says Beck, of Ann-Margret, "you try to capture her spirit and energy. She was a formidable woman, yet soft-spoken. She played vampy and she played the ingenue. Somehow, she managed to embrace her sexuality at the same time as she seemed like the girl next door."
And, like the character she portrays in "Elvis," Beck concedes that, theatrically, "I won't be put in a box."
Some of her characters are boxers, others referees. Off-stage as well, this is someone willing, eager, to go a round on behalf of those pushed out of the ring or held back from entering.
"I've always been involved in causes," relates the Bucks resident willing to buck headwinds.
Indeed, she is first vice chair of the Philadelphia Liaison Committee/Council for Actors Equity and works on behalf of animals with PAWS.
She is the founder of the Celtic Trio/The Galway Girls!, for which she also serves as flautist.
As acclaimed as her career is, she is not one to flaut her accomplishments. Indeed, a little less conversation about her, one senses, and more for those who helped put her where she is now: Joan Myerov, she says of her Perkasie-based voice teacher, "encouraged me to sing in different styles," and Penelope Reed, director emeritus of the Hedgerow Theatre in Delaware County, helped Beck read between the lines of scripted characters. "She made me believe I was an actress, gave me the confidence to be what I am, encouraged me to try."
And as a student of theater, tryouts at Central Bucks West led the then-teen to roles she would relish. "I was very involved with shows there, but I was not a show kid, more a dance/voice kid," she recalls of her high school hits.
And that kid gave it the old college try, too, at Ithaca, where Beck was accepted into its prestigious theater program, earning her BFA and lauded as a magna cum laude graduate.
And while she sings the praises of those who helped her — including Carverville's Howard Perloff, founding/artistic director of the Bucks County Center for the Performing Arts, where she earned her Equity card as a cast member of "The Irish ... and How They Got That Way" — she also gives a shout-out to those who paved the way for actresses of all ages. Indeed, Beck beckoned her insider musical tastes to toast the M&Ms (Mary Martin and Ethel Merman) who forged careers as fearless females in the male-dominated musical industry. She and Sarah J. Gafgen co-conceived and executed the "Merman & Martin — Together Off-Broadway!" songfest.
These days, Beck is scoring and sounding off — in the best way possible — about "Elvis" at the Walnut, where Ann-Margret and Elvis reportedly torch the floor in the number, "You're the Boss."
"They were like two magnets together, circling each other," she says.
Is this the breakout role that will bring Beck to Broadway? "The show is 'Elvis,' not 'Elvis and Ann-Margret,' " she says with a chuckle. "It's his story."
How about a sequel? "Elvis & A.M.?"
"Not going to happen," she says, adding with a laugh, "But that would be an awesome show."
Michael Elkin is a playwright, theater critic and novelist who lives in Abington. He writes columns about theater and the arts.
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