Cast Set for MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET at Paramount Theatre

There’s a whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on in Aurora, Illinois, right now as the city’s top downtown cultural attraction, Paramount Theatre, prepares to inaugurate its third live theater space, Stolp Island Theatre at 5 E. Downer Place, Suite G, with a rockin’ new staging of Million Dollar Quartet.

Today, Paramount announced its cast and crew for one of the all-time best rock and roll musicals, custom produced for Paramount’s new Stolp Island Theatre, an experiential space with just 98 seats, where audiences will feel like they are part of the show. Performances start July 10. Due to popular demand, Million Dollar Quartet has already been extended through December 29, 2024.

As soon as audiences step inside Stolp Island Theatre, they’ll feel like they’ve stepped back in time to December 5, 1956, inside the Sun Records recording studio in Memphis, Tennessee, where music legends Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins came together and recorded one of the most historic jam sessions in rock and roll history. Nominated for three Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Million Dollar Quartet features some of the biggest and best songs of all time, including “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” “I Walk the Line,” “Hound Dog” and “Great Balls of Fire.”

Paramount’s Million Dollar Quartet will be led by Garrett Forrestal as Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Scott Sheets as Johnny Cash, Alex Swindle as Elvis Presley and Christopher Wren as Carl Perkins. Dan Leali plays Fluke, Madison Palmer is Dyanne, Sam Pearson plays Sam Phillips, Jake Saleh is Brother Jay and Haley Jane Schafer plays Marion. Understudies are Drew Mitchell, Billy Rude, Haley Jane Schafer, Zach Sorrow and Kyle Wells.
 

Directors Jim Corti and Creg Sclavi are working with a “million dollar” production team including Kory Danielson, music director; Jeffrey D. Kmiec, scenic designer; Matt Guthier, costume designer; Greg Hofmann, lighting designer; Adam Rosenthal, sound designer; Mike Tutaj, projections designer; Katie Cordts, wig, hair and makeup designer; Jonathan Berg-Einhorn, properties designer; Ethan Deppe, electronic music designer; Susan Gosdick, dialect coach; Max Fabian, fight and intimacy director; Devon Hayakawa, dramaturg; Bill Scott Sheets, associate music director; Rebecca J. Lister, stage manager; and Emily Hanlon, assistant stage manager. Book by Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrex. Original concept and direction by Floyd Mutrix. 

Previews of Million Dollar Quartet start July 10. Opening Weekend is July 19-21. Show times are Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., Thursday at 7 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., Sunday at 1 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. though December 29, 2024.

Tickets to Million Dollar Quartet are $65. For tickets and information, visit paramountaurora.com, call (630) 896-6666, or stop by the Paramount Theatre box office, 23 E. Galena Blvd., Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and until show time on show days. 

Photo credit: Amy Nelson 

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