Elvis makes appearance at Cove Theater for live performance
By BRITTANY FHOLER
Cove Leader-Press
For one night only, Elvis returned to the building at the Cove Theater downtown, with Elvis impersonator Mike Elliott’s Elvis Tribute Saturday evening.
Elliott sang 90 minutes’ worth of Elvis classics, hits and more, to a packed theater of at least 100 people.
Elliott has been a top-rated Elvis Tribute artist in the Central Texas area for 10 consecutive years and is currently one of the top five in Texas. He recently performed with Sammy Hager at Austin City Limits. In total, Elliott has been perfecting his Elvis show for more than 20 years.
During his performances of Elvis’ love songs, such as “Love Me Tender”, Elliott passed out blue silk scarves to the women in the audience who came up to the stage.
Donna Thompson attended Friday night’s show with her sisters, Glenda and Brenda. Thompson said she hadn’t been to the theater since the early 1970s. She and her sisters are longtime Covites who regularly attended the theater downtown as children.
“Theater looks great,” Thompson said in a comment on the Cove Theater’s Facebook page. “Fantastic feel, economical entertainment, wonderful memories came back and new made.”
Thompson told the Leader-Press that she and her sisters thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere at the theater as well as the Elvis show itself.
Andy Remedies and Bettina Cash own the Cove Theater downtown, which has been renovated, repainted and reopened.
In addition to the classic movies and other older movies that are past their theatrical release, the Cove Theater also offers live entertainment options and other activities for people looking for something to do, especially on the weekend.
Last Thursday, the Reptile Show held a presentation at the theater, with live reptiles. Tickets were sold out, and Cash and Remedies had to turn people away because of how packed the show was.
For Saturday’s Elvis Tribute show, the Cove Theater sold around 100 tickets before the show started, according to Cash.
The theater also offered a Super Bowl Watch Party, with full concessions and door prizes, on Sunday, from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. The event was free, with a corkage fee of $5 for people who brought their own beverages.
The Cove Theater hopes to continue to offer weekend entertainment options for Copperas Cove residents and beyond. Some of their upcoming events include Saturday Morning Breakfast at the Movies, where people can come in their pajamas to watch cartoons from the 80s and 90s while enjoying a spread of breakfast foods, including cereal, fruit, donuts, kolaches, waffles and more. The next Saturday Morning Breakfast at the Movies will be this Saturday, Feb. 19, from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Tickets will be $6.99 plus tax and can be purchased through the theater’s website or in person.
“It’s just been a really good turnout to see the kiddos, you know,” Remedies said. “Also, as most people know, we’re educators and so seeing real kids just kind of have that wonder and get out with their families is really, really cool.”
The Cove Theater will also have a watch party for the UFC 272 Covington vs. Masvidal fight on March 5 at 6:30 p.m. This event, like the Super Bowl Watch Party that was held Sunday, is a Bring Your Own Beverage event, with a $5 corkage fee. Admission is free, otherwise. Tickets can be purchased on the website or in person. MVP recliner seats are available for a $7 corkage fee.
In April, the Cove Theater will host a Wrestlemania 38 Watch Party on April 2 and 3, at 5:30 p.m. This is also a BYOB event, with a $5 or $7 corkage fee.
Tickets can be purchased under Special Events at https://www.thecovetheater.com/.
“We just want to bring it back. Bring back…I don’t want to say the good old days because that sounds really weird, but just keeping Cove dollars in Cove, providing entertainment, finding something to do and hopefully spark a revitalization of downtown Cove, because it’s a shame that so many of us go to Killeen to have fun,” Remedies said.