Village Theatre Developed MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET Receives 3 Tony Nods

The nominees for the highly competitive 64th Annual Tony Awards were announced this morning; the smash-hit new musical Million Dollar Quartet, developed early on in Village Theatre's Village Originals program, received 3 nominations. These nods include Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical for Levi Kreis-first cast in Village Theatre's Festival reading and Mainstage production.          
 
Million Dollar Quartet was originally part of Village Theatre's 6th Annual Festival of New Musicals in 2006. The show was met with such great applause, it swiftly became the 2007-2008 Mainstage season opener in September 2007. To date, the production is Village Theatre's largest selling new musical bringing in over $1 million in overall ticket sales. From Village Theatre the commercial producers, MDQ, LLC, shepherded the show on its journey to Chicago where it is still enjoying a successful run after more than a year at the Apollo Theatre.
 
It was in 2010 that Million Dollar Quartet was called to Broadway, opening April 11 at the Nederlander Theatre to a packed house. Robb Hunt, Executive Producer was in attendance that exciting evening in New York City as Million Dollar Quartet joined Next to Normal as the second Village Originals show in Village Theatre history to make it to Broadway. "Million Dollar Quartet's success is truly a milestone for Village Theatre's new works program in that it is the first new musical that was produced on our Mainstage to move on to Broadway," Hunt commented. "Colin Escott [author] has done remarkable work and development on the book along the way, and we are proud of the wonderful performers who have stayed with the show since they were here in Issaquah, continuing to give the show new life and excitement with each performance."
 
Broadway cast members that have been with the show since the Mainstage production in Issaquah  include Tony nominated Levi Kreis (Jerry Lee Lewis), Lance Guest (Johnny Cash), Rob Lyons (Carl Perkins), and Corey Kaiser (upright bassist, Jay Perkins).
 
About Village Theatre
Based in Issaquah, WA, with operations in Everett, Village Theatre is a leading producer of musical theatre in the Pacific Northwest. Producing entertaining quality productions for the entire family since 1979, Village Theatre has grown into one of the region's best-attended Equity theatres, with over 18,000 Subscribers and 182,000 projected total attendance each season. Through its Village Originals program, Village Theatre is nationally recognized for its contribution to the development of new musicals, having launched over 80 new works to date. Village Theatre also takes pride in nurturing tomorrow's audiences through its youth education programs, Pied Piper and KIDSTAGE, serving over 54,000 young people, families, and schools annually.

For more infomrmation, visit www.villagetheatre.org.

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