MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET, Broadway's new musical sensation, is thrilled to announce that music legend Jerry Lee Lewis, the last surviving member of the real ‘Million Dollar Quartet,' will join the cast of the Tony nominated Best Musical for a special encore during the Friday evening, September 10 performance.
Lewis' brand new album Mean Old Man will be released on September 7 on Verve/Universal Music Enterprises. For the upcoming album, Lewis and MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET's Levi Kreis, who received a 2010 Tony Award® for his portrayal of Lewis, have recorded a duet of the classic 1959 song "Money (That's What I Want)." The duet will be included in special limited edition of Mean Old Man that will be sold exclusively at the Nederlander Theatre.
The cast of MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET features Eddie Clendening (Elvis Presley), Lance Guest (Johnny Cash), Tony Award® winner Levi Kreis (Jerry Lee Lewis), Robert Britton Lyons (Carl Perkins), Tony Award® nominee Hunter Foster (Little Shop of Horrors, Urinetown) and Elizabeth Stanley (Cry-Baby).
On December 4, 1956, an auspicious twist of fate brought Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Elvis Presley together. The place was Sun Records' storefront studio in Memphis. The man who made it happen was Sam Phillips, the "Father of Rock and Roll," who discovered them all. The four young musicians united for the only time in their careers for an impromptu recording that has come to be known as one of the greatest rock jam sessions of all time.
Inspired by the actual event, MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET features a treasure trove of the greatest rock and roll, gospel, R&B and country hits from these musicians, including such iconic songs as "Blue Suede Shoes," "Fever," "Sixteen Tons," "Who Do You Love?," "Great Balls of Fire," "Riders in the Sky," "I Walk the Line," "Folsom Prison Blues," and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On." MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET captures the infectious spirit, freewheeling excitement and thrilling sounds of a singular moment when four of the music industry's most extraordinary talents, all in their creative prime, came together for one of the most memorable nights in music history.
In addition, to Kreis' Tony® for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET received Tony nominations for Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical (Colin Escott & Floyd Mutrux). The show received an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical (Levi Kreis), a Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Musical Revue and three Drama League Nominations including Distinguished Production of a Musical and Distinguished Performance (Lance Guest & Levi Kreis).
MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET is directed by Eric Schaeffer and features a book by Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux. The design team for Broadway includes: Derek McLane (scenic design), Howell Binkley (lighting design), Jane Greenwood (costume design), Kai Harada (sound design) and Chuck Mead (musical arrangements and supervision).
MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET is produced by Relevant Theatricals, John Cossette Productions, American Pop Anthology, Broadway Across America, and James L. Nederlander.
The Chicago production of MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET opened in 2008 and is still playing to packed houses at the Apollo Theatre, for information about the Chicago production of MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET, visit wwwithMillionDollarQuartetLive.com.
TICKET INFORMATION:
Tickets for MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET are available online wwwithTicketMaster.com, by calling 212-307-4100, or by visiting the Nederlander Box Office (208 West 41st Street).
MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET's performance schedule is Tuesday at 7PM, Thursday through Saturday at 8PM and Sunday at 7PM. Matinees on Wednesday and Saturday at 2PM and Sunday at 3PM.
BIOGRAPHY
JERRY Lee Lewis was born to the poor family of Elmo and Mamie Lewis in Ferriday, LA on September 29, 1935; his parents mortgaged The Farm when he was 8 to buy him a piano. Jerry Lee Lewis, who is completely self-taught, developed his own ferocious approach to the piano by the age of 10, synthesizing the boogie-woogie sounds he heard on the radio with the Southern-fried R&B emanating from Haney's Big House, a local juke joint owned by his uncle.
After enrolling in, and promptly being expelled from Southwestern Bible College in Waxahatchie, Texas, the siren call of music continued to pull Jerry Lee onto a trajectory that would change the world. Bringing together elements of R&B, boogie-woogie, gospel and country into a sound uniquely his own, Jerry Lee Lewis became an integral part of the emerging rock 'n' roll scene that was usurping and supplanting the big band sounds of popular music.
By 1956, Jerry Lee had found his way into Sam Phillips' fabled Sun Studios, where he cut his first charting single, a revved-up rendition of Ray Price's "Crazy Arms," and worked as an in-house session musician. One day, while playing piano for some Carl Perkins sessions, Jerry Lee became part of an impromptu jam session that includEd Perkins, Johnny Cash, and a young Elvis Presley. The engineer rolled the tape and that session became the lone recording of the fabled "Million Dollar Quartet."
With the release of Jerry Lee Lewis's "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" and "Great Balls of Fire" in 1957, the flamboyant young performer crossed over onto the pop, R&B and country charts and landed on-screen performance roles in the films "High School Confidential" and "Jamboree." When Elvis saw Jerry Lee Lewis perform, he said that, if he could play piano like that, he'd stop singing.
Beginning in 1958, Jerry Lee Lewis's career was plagued by a series of scandals and stories; many well-documented as rock history and legend in books including Nick Tosches' 1982 biography, "Hellfire." By the mid-1960s, Jerry Lee Lewis had crossed over as a country artist, with 1968's "Another Place, Another Time," becoming a country chart-topper.
Described by Roy Orbison as the best raw performer in the history of rock 'n' roll music, Jerry Lee Lewis became one of the very first inductees into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. That same year, Jerry Lee went back to Sun Studios in Memphis to record the album "Class of '55" with Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins. "Interviews from the Class of '55 Recording Sessions" earned the 1987 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album. In February 2005, Jerry Lee Lewis was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS). In 2009, Jerry Lee opened two star-studded Madison Square Garden concerts celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The resulting HBO special currently has five Emmy nominations and will be available on DVD later in the year.
Over the course of his career, Jerry Lee Lewis has never stopped touring and is still the incandescent performer who makes every gig a transformative experience.
ABOUT LEWIS' NEW ALBUM MEAN OLD MAN
Mean Old Man is produced by Jim Keltner and Steve Bing; Phoebe Lewis, Jerry Lee's daughter and manager, is the CD's Executive Producer. Mean Old Man will be released by Verve/Universal Music Enterprises on September 7.
Some of the greatest group of sidemen and women ever assembled join Lewis on the Mean Old Man 18-track deluxe and 10-track standard CDs. The following is a list of the tracks and the guest artists on each:10-track standard
