It’s true that one day at Sun Records, happenstance placed Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis in the same recording studio. The recording exists, but poor sound quality and the disorganized nature of an impromptu jam session does not yield the sumptuous storytelling that fans crave. Enter Million Dollar Quartet, the play that scripts potential details of that recording session, placing four icons of early rock and roll (and their unique musical sounds) in the spotlight. You can see Ensemble Theatre Company’s production of Million Dollar Quartet (by Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux) at the New Vic December 5-22.
In this imagined narrative, record producer Sam Phillips is the front man, and dialogue between the four musicians reveals tension in the form of personal resentments, career insecurities, and record label politics. “Some audiences will come for nostalgia,” says director Brian McDonald, “but young audiences will come to appreciate the influence these musicians have had on what rock and roll is today.” During this era, producers like Phillips were trying to reinvent Black music for the white market.
“In the south,” David Lamoureux, the production’s musical director, explains, “religion, gospel, and spirituals were constant, universal influences. But many people playing proto rock and roll were not trained musicians. People were taking limited skills and trying to re-create a sound that they didn’t inherently know how to play.”
With Elvis, says McDonald, Phillips found the perfect way to bridge that gap: a white boy who had an authentic connection to the Black sound.
After the dramatization of the Sun Records session, Million Dollar Quartet rewards the audience with the fantasy concert they’ve been craving — all four actor/musicians, deep in character, perform as they might have if Presley, Cash, Perkins, and Lewis had collaborated. Dust off your blue suede shoes and catch Million Dollar Quartet at the New Vic Theatre.
See etcsb.org/production/million-dollar-quartet.
