Review: MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET at Arizona Broadway Theatre

Guest contributor David Appleford’s thumbs-up review of Arizona Broadway Theatre’s production of MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET.

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“On December 4, 1956, one man brought Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Elvis Presley to play together for the first and only time. That man was me, Sam Phillips. The place was Sun Records. And that night, we made rock 'n roll history!"

Performing now at Arizona Broadway Theatre in Peoria until November 2 is the aptly titled MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET. This 2010 Broadway jukebox musical virtually re-enacts what happened on that cold, December afternoon in Memphis when Sam Phillips (Michael Santora) rolled tape.

It used to be a Memphis auto parts store. Then it was converted into a recording studio for Sun Records. And it was there, on December 4, 1956, where it happened. By chance, four rock ‘n roll legends met for different reasons and jammed together at the studio into the evening. They were dubbed The Million Dollar Quartet. It wasn’t planned. It just happened, and record producer and impresario, Sam Phillips has the tapes to prove it.

It was supposed to be a recording session for the man known as 'The King of Rockabilly,' Carl Perkins (Julian James). At the time, he was already a name, but after Blue Suede Shoes there came a lull in his career. Carl needed a follow-up. So he was there, hoping to record a career comeback, with Sam Philips guiding the way.

Helping out that afternoon on the piano as a session musician was a young up-and-comer, later known as 'The Killer,' rock and roll's first great wild man, Jerry Lee Lewis (Kevin W. Egan). At the time, Jerry Lee was unknown, but there was something about him that recording impresario Phillips could see was worth tapping into.

Then the deep, bass-baritone-voiced Johnny Cash (Brody Wurr) dropped by. At that time, Cash’s career was in full swing. After seeing Perkins recording with the new session kid, Jerry Lee, Cash decided to pick up a guitar and join in. There was previously some speculation questioning whether Johnny Cash ever hung around long enough to play with the other three that afternoon, though the Man In Black himself has said he was there, and it's his voice you'll hear on those recordings.

Finally, Elvis Presley (Corey McKinney) just happened to drop by, accompanied by his then-girlfriend Dyanne (Quinn Tierney Vaira), and did exactly what his rock 'n roll instincts told him to do: he picked up a guitar and joined the jam behind the mics. And even though they're not seen in the show, in reality, there were several other people in attendance at the studios that afternoon who witnessed the event. One was a newspaperman, and it was he who publicly dubbed the four as the Million Dollar Quartet.

From the beginning at curtain’s rise, as soon as the famous foursome burst into the introductory Blue Suede Shoes with the kick plus the volume of a fully-fledged rock 'n roll concert – all actors play their instruments -  the smile on the faces of every fifties rock ‘n roll fan in the theatre should be bright enough to light up the house, and it’ll remain there for ninety-five more minutes or so until Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On is done and Elvis has left the building. “I didn’t want to just play the tunes,” Phillips confides directly to the audience, referring to his time on the radio, “I wanted to record them.”

The style of the show is quickly established. Once Blue Suede Shoes is completed, the cast exits, only to individually re-enter to begin the session. There's a verse of a famous song, followed by a theatrical freeze and a change of Bret Reese’s atmospheric lighting as Phillips turns to the audience and tells us how he first met the four singers, often with an anecdote to follow.

But there’s also a lot of good humor throughout, including a couple of one-line groaners. When Johnny Cash enters and is asked where he’s been lately, he answers, “I’ve been everywhere, man.”  And when Elvis talks of his annoyance of having to play support to comedian Shecky Greene at a Las Vegas nightclub to the wrong kind of audience and booed off the stage every night, he declares, “I swear, I’ll never play Vegas again.” Maybe the writers couldn’t help themselves. 

Plus, when Presley’s girlfriend Dyanne is introduced to an aggressively flirtatious Jerry Lee Lewis, she remarks, “You’re kinda bashful, ain’t ya.” For the record, Presley’s mystery girlfriend was named Dyanne for the show simply because at the time of putting the script together, writers Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux didn’t know who the mystery woman was. She was later tracked down when in her seventies and found to be a one-time Vegas dancer named Marilyn Evans.

There's an arc of a story, there to create a little conflict among the songs. Phillips has drafted a new, three-year contract he's about to offer Johnny Cash to stay with Sun Records, but he’s unaware that Cash has already signed a deal with Columbia Records. Cash is trying to find the right moment to tell the impresario that he’ll be leaving, but it won't be easy. There’s also the resentment felt by Perkins when watching TV’s The Perry Como Show; guest singer Elvis Presley performed Blue Suede Shoes. Now, when people hear Perkins sing his song, they think he's covering a Presley hit.

Julian Joseph’s scenic design of the recording studio’s interior practically stretches from one side of ABT’s proscenium stage to the other, giving actors a wide forum on which director Jason Cohen can move his actors. Walls are decorated with gold records while various recording studio items decorate the stage. Notably absent, though, is any sign of Christmas. 

Traditionally, the set of MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET has Christmas lights strewn across the walls, and perhaps a small lighted tree for good measure. After all, the characters talk of the cold weather outside, they refer to the oncoming holidays, it takes place during December, and Phillips is even given a Christmas present followed by the greeting, “Merry Christmas.” Yet for whatever reason, Christmas lights in ABT’s production are curiously canceled. 

But in a show like this where music is everything, it’s the songs and how they’re performed that matter above all else. Backed by Carl’s brother, Jay Perkins (Jason Curtis Revera) on bass and Fluke Holland (Jeffrey T. Kelly) on drums (under Jason Cohen’s music direction) to call the fifties score ‘timeless’ is nothing short of lazy journalism. There’s something far more reaching about songs like Who Do You Love, Long Tall Sally, Great Balls of Fire, or Brown-Eyed Handsome Man (originally written by Chuck Berry as Brown Skinned Handsome Man but forced to change for radio). 

With supremely catchy hooks, an energy rarely before heard in American popular music, and the simplicity of arrangements – a bass, drums, lead guitar, and if Jerry Lee was included, a piano played as though his fingers were mini hammers – those were songs meant to be sung, not so much in a recording studio, but live, in performance. Watching one fifties rock 'n roll number performed after another, and performed so well, as they are here, is a genuine thrill. And once the show is over, the bows are taken, and you're on your feet for the much-deserved standing ovation, don't think of leaving, or sitting back down. There's an encore to come that may look like theatre in presentation but it feels and sounds like an all-out rock 'n roll revival concert. Bret Reese's lighting design bursts into action with as much visual excitement as the music.  

And as with all productions of MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET when done well, the real strength of this new ABT production is the cast – the excellent musician/performers who, while avoiding the imitation of certain obvious well-known character traits in their portrayals, manage to recreate specific elements of their real-life counterparts in a way that most of us (of a certain age) will immediately recognize and delight in.

MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET runs through November 2nd at:

Arizona Broadway Theatre ~ https://azbroadway.org/ ~ 7701 W. Paradise Lane, Peoria, AZ ~ 623-776-8400

Graphic credit to ABT

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