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Million Dollar Quartet
Malvern Theatres
**** THIS is the story of a jam session that
is considered a seminal moment in rock and roll history and one which
only happened by chance. It was later dubbed the Million Dollar Quartet
and is a recording of impromptu music making involving Elvis Presley,
Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash which was made on December
4, 1956, when they all converged at the Sun Record Studios in Memphis,
Tennessee. The musical brings that legendary day to life
when sometime in the early afternoon a 21 year old Elvis with new found
stardom, a former Sun artist now with RCA Victor, arrived to pay a
casual visit accompanied by a girlfriend, Dyanne, here he finds his old
friend Sam Phillips played by Jason Donovan, who has brought in his
latest acquisition, Jerry Lee Lewis, still unknown outside Memphis, to
play piano. At that time Carl
Perkins had already had a hit record with
Blue Suede Shoes
and was in the studio to record some new songs when Elvis calls in and
decides to join in and soon after Johnny Cash arrives after being told
to get down to the studio. The quartet all in their early twenties, is
played by four superb actor musicians. Martin Kaye (Jerry Lee Lewis) who
has played the role on the first North American tour of Million Dollar
Quartet as well as the Las Vegas production of the show, Robbie Durham
(Johnny Cash), Ross William Wild (Elvis Presley) and Matt Wycliffe (Carl
Perkins). And they're all well supported by Ben Cullingworth on drums,
James Swinnerton on bass and Kate Ray as Dyanne the girlfriend of Elvis. There is plenty to admire in Jason Donovan's
performance and authentic deep south accent as he captures his legendary
character to perfection, a businessman/music producer who made music
history by bringing four phenomenal recording stars together. The background stories and details about the
performers are delivered by Sam Phillips who acts as narrator.
Typically, as a member from the Quartet enters for the first time, he
sings a verse of one of his most famous songs, followed by an onstage
freeze of all actors. During this time Sam Phillips relates to the
audience how he first discovered the boy and a brief few line scene of
that moment occurs between Phillips and the musician, followed by Sam
Phillips asking the boy to play something for him, which is the next
verse of the song and everyone unfreezes. The party really started to swing come the
encores when the audience really seemed to engage with the music and the
performers, especially the high energy of the unconventional Jerry Lee
Lewis. Featuring 23 hit songs
including That’s All Right, Walk the
Line, Folsom Prison Blues and
Great Balls of Fire,
this is much more than just another rock and
roll musical, it's Sam Phillips's story and the pivotal work he did at
Sun in the 1950s. To 22-10-16 Johnathan Gray 17-10-16
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