Elvis's Jailhouse shock

So theatre-lovers who have already bought tickets for Jailhouse Rock: The Musical, which opens in the West End this month, may be more than a little dismayed to discover that the show features not a single note of Jailhouse Rock - the song.

Alan Janes and Rob Bettinson, the veteran writer/director team behind the musical, have failed to persuade the legal owners of The King's back catalogue to let them use the number.

Now the men behind the original song - writers Leiber and Stoller - have revealed their outrage over the musical using their song title.

Mike Stoller, who with Jerry Leiber wrote seminal hits including Hound Dog and Stand By Me as well as Jailhouse Rock, told the Evening Standard: "We feel that using the title of our song for their show is intentionally misleading the public."

The rights to many of Elvis' hits, including the Leiber and Stoller collection, are controlled by Elvis Presley Enterprises, owned by his daughter and heir Lisa Marie Presley. EPE have refused to grant Jailhouse Rock permission to use any of the songs in their control - but the musical has been able to license other Elvis hits including Suspicious Minds and Are You Lonesome Tonight.

Gary Hovey, vice-president of EPE's entertainment and publishing division, told the Standard: " I informed them the songs we controlled had been committed to a play we have been working on for over two years and were not available."

Randy Poe, of Leiber and Stoller Music Publishing, who control the rights to the song in the US, said: "I have no desire to give an inch of publicity to this show which blatantly usurps the title of one of the greatest rock and roll songs of all time."

The musical's co-producer Jonathan Alver said last night: "We would very much like to have had the song. But Elvis Presley Enterprises have decided that they don't want the British public to have that song in a musical that celebrates their hero. It is a terrible shame."

THE SHOW'S HITS