It’s been said that everyone has their own Elvis Presley.

He lives in the cultural subconscious in a way that even his fellow icons do not: simultaneously universally and specifically. Everyone has their own eponymous version of the King of Rock and Roll which first springs — or leaps or thrusts or twists — to mind, and almost nobody has exactly the same vision.

But everyone, regardless of age or interest, has one.

Rough-and-tumble rockabilly kid. Jailhouse hood in prisoner stripes. Clean-cut soldier boy. Lei-rocking, ukulele-strumming surf bum. Shiny, billowy Vegas-style shaman. His visage is a regular staple of Halloween. His unmistakable drawl, a can’t-fail impression for even mediocre mimics.

Elvis is eternal, and everyone has their own.

Now, just in time for the 40th anniversary of Presley’s passing, the Bainbridge-based theatrical group Waterfront Readers Theatre will stage a production of “All the King’s Women,” a collection of five short plays and three monologues depicting the life of the King through the eyes of 17 women who knew him.

Some were enthralled.

Others were appalled.

But, none would ever forget their time, however brief, with the good ol’ boy godfather of the Memphis Mafia.

Taking care of business, baby.

The play, written by Luigi Jannuzzi, will be performed twice: at 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 27 and at 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28 at Huney Hall in the Bainbridge Island Senior Center. Admission is free. Donations will be accepted.

Finding and helming this production of “All the King’s Women” was a bit of kismet for director Neva Cole. Earlier this year, she purchased a special commemorative book published to mark the anniversary of the King’s death, and it recalled for her a long ago concert experience of her own.

“When I was a teenager, we lived in Eastern Washington and went to Spokane to see him,” she said. “It was extremely interesting to grow up in that era because he was denounced from the pulpits. My mother happened to have been from the South, and she loved his voice, but she was different. We lived in the north and the kids weren’t supposed to listen [to that]. You just weren’t supposed to be into all that.”

Nova’s hip mom, however, piled her daughter and six friends into the family Ford station wagon and set off to the Spokane Fairgrounds in 1957 to see the King come north, a moment she said has been indelibly etched in her mind’s eye ever since.

“That was his grand tour, and [Colonel Tom] Parker decided to get him known,” Cole said. “[Elvis] was known in the South, and he’d done well in the South, but he was literally unknown [here]. So, they did this huge tour and they took a chance to come out to the Pacific Northwest because nobody had heard of him, absolutely nobody.

“It is so hard to describe,” Cole said. “Because you don’t think about it at the time, except you knew this was different. All your life … you’ve been dancing to big band sounds, swing … and now? Oh, my word, he’s up on the stage and he’s moving in a way you’re not allowed to move. They called them gyrations. But he was moving. And, of course, the sound! The girls are squealing!”

It was an odd juxtaposition, Cole said, of prim and passion, something she’d never seen before — and would not soon forget.

“In those days, you kind of got dressed up to go out,” she said. “It just was a different scene. And it was the first time I’d ever been in a group that I saw hysteria. Like, hysteria. The reaching, the yearning, and after it was over you were just exhausted because you’d laughed, you’d cried, you’d yelled. Everybody knew that music was never going to be the same.”

As a real life fan, Cole said Jannuzzi’s play rang true for her, and was an immediately obvious good choice for the group.

“For someone who never got to see Elvis, he’s done his research,” she said. “He’s really done his stuff.”

Several of the exchanges in the play are based on real life, Cole explained, including the depiction of Presley meeting President Richard Nixon, the time the King sang to an actual hound dog on the Steve Allen television show, and one of many, many instances when he waltzed into a Cadillac dealership to make an impromptu purchase — or two.

The reactions to the play have left little doubt as the lasting impact of the King, Cole said.

“From the minute I said I would do it, people are going, ‘Oh, I got my first CD, it was ‘Don’t Be Cruel’ for a dollar. I remember when he came here!’” she said. “There’s like a spark that touches, and then, of course, he’s the largest record seller ever — 217 million to date. That surpasses anything, ever.”

For other reasons, too, she said, the play was a good choice for the Waterfront Readers.

“We’re always on the search for something that will really connect with an audience and be of family value,” she said. “We definitely lean toward comedy. Nothing wrong with a little pathos, but we like a light touch.”

The group has staged productions of “Love, Loss and What I Wore,” as well as a version of “The Odd Couple” with female leads.

Image courtesy of Jacqueline Cain | The Waterfront Readers Theatre will stage a two-day production of “All the King’s Women” at 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 27 and at 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28 at Huney Hall in the Bainbridge Island Senior Center. Admission is free. Donations will be accepted. Image courtesy of Jacqueline Cain | The Waterfront Readers Theatre will stage a two-day production of “All the King’s Women” at 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 27 and at 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28 at Huney Hall in the Bainbridge Island Senior Center. Admission is free. Donations will be accepted.