Broadway's Memphis, winner of four Tony Awards® including Best Musical, Best Score, Best Book and Best Orchestrations, comes to THIRTEEN's Great Performances Friday, February 24 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). Featuring the original Broadway cast, including Tony nominees Chad Kimball and Montego Glover, as well as Derrick Baskin, J. Bernard Calloway, James Monroe Iglehart, Michael McGrath and Cass Morgan. Memphis is the historic first Best Musical Tony Award winner to air on U.S. national television with its original principals while simultaneously continuing a successful Broadway run and national tour.
Memphis takes place in the smoky halls and underground clubs of the segregated 50s, where a young white DJ named Huey Calhoun (Kimball) falls in love with everything he shouldn't: rock and roll and an electrifying black singer Felicia Farrell (Glover). Memphis is an original story about the cultural revolution that erupted when his vision met her voice, and the music changed forever.
Filled with high-octane dancing, songs that perfectly capture the era, and an absorbing tale of fame and forbidden love, the show offers soaring emotion and roof-raising rock 'n' roll.
The show's Tony®-winning original score features music by Bon Jovi's founding member and keyboardist David Bryan and lyrics by Bryan and Joe DiPietro (I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change), who also pens the musical's book. The show is based on a concept by the late George W. George (producer of the Tony nominated Bedroom Farce and the film My Dinner With Andre), with direction by Tony nominee Christopher Ashley (Xanadu) and choreography by Sergio Trujillo, (Jersey Boys, Next to Normal).
The critically acclaimed production of Memphis won a total of four 2010 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Score (David Bryan and Joe DiPietro), Best Book (Joe DiPietro), and Best Orchestrations (David Bryan and Daryl Waters). Memphis is currently in its 3rd smash year on Broadway, delighting audiences nightly at the Shubert Theatre (225 West 44th Street).
Memphis launched a U.S. national tour in Memphis, TN, opening to critical acclaim in October 2011 at the historic Orpheum Theatre.
Memphis was released on Blu-ray™, DVD and digital download on January 24th by Shout! Factory, in association with Broadway Worldwide.
Great Performances is a production of THIRTEEN for WNET, one of America's most prolific and respected public media providers. For nearly 50 years, WNET has been producing and broadcasting national and local arts programming to the New York community.
Great Performances is funded by The National Endowment for the Arts, the Irene Diamond Fund, Vivian Milstein, The Starr Foundation, the Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, Joseph A. Wilson, The LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, public television viewers, and PBS.
For Great Performances, Bill O'Donnell is series producer; David Horn is executive producer.
The high definition production was captured by Broadway Worldwide live-in-performance at the Shubert Theatre. Broadway Worldwide is led by executive producer Bruce Brandwen, with five-time Emmy® winning director Don Roy King and Grammy® winning sound producer Matt Kaplowitz.
Visit Great Performances Online at www.pbs.org/gperf for additional information about this and other programs.
New York's WNET is America's flagship public media outlet, bringing quality arts, education and public affairs programming to over 5 million viewers each week. The parent company of public television stations THIRTEEN and WLIW21 and operator of NJTV, WNET produces and presents such acclaimed PBS series as Nature, Great Performances, American Masters, Need to Know, Charlie Rose, Tavis Smiley and a range of documentaries, children's programs, and local news and cultural offerings available on air and online. Pioneers in educational programming, WNET has created such groundbreaking series as Get the Math, Noah Comprende and Cyberchase and provides tools for educators that bring compelling content to life in the classroom and at home. WNET highlights the tri-state's unique culture and diverse communities through NYC-ARTS, Reel 13, NJ Today and the new online newsmagazine MetroFocus.
Broadway Worldwide was established as the first-to-market in the high definition, surround sound production and worldwide distribution of Broadway musicals captured live-in-performance for digital cinema, DVD/Blu-ray™ and television. To date, Broadway Worldwide has captured and distributed, DIRECT FROM BROADWAY®, Best Musical Tony® winner MEMPHIS, Broadway's longest running musical revue, SMOKEY JOE'S CAFE THE SONGS OF LEIBER AND STOLLER, Stephen Sondheim's PUTTING IT TOGETHER A MUSICAL REVIEW starring Carol Burnett and JEKYLL & HYDE THE MUSICAL starring David Hasselhoff.
MEMPHIS, the show that's blowing the roof off Broadway, currently stars Tony nominee Adam Pascal (Huey) and Tony Nominee Montego Glover (Felicia) with Derrick Baskin (Gator), J. Bernard Calloway (Delray), James Monroe Iglehart (Bobby), John Jellison (Mr. Simmons), and Cass Morgan (Mama) opened on October 19, 2009 at Broadway's Shubert Theatre (225 W. 44th Street). Previews began on September 23rd. MEMPHIS launched a U. S. national tour in Memphis, TN, which opened to critical acclaim on October 16, 2011 at the historic Orpheum Theatre. For more information on the Broadway production or the tour, please visit www.MemphisTheMusical.com
