Theater Review | ‘Million Dollar Quartet’ Brings Old Time Rock ‘N’ Roll to Santa Barbara
Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis Come to Life in Ensemble Theatre Company’s Latest Production
Ensemble Theatre Company’s production of Million Dollar Quartet (by Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux) delivers an alluring mirage of that “old-time rock and roll.” Nashville’s Sun Records launched the careers of many iconic artists, including Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis. In 1956, these four legends of early rock and roll gathered at Sun Records with Sam Phillips, the producer who discovered them, for a recording session that made history.
Directed by Brian McDonald, this charming rock and roll fantasy is structured with enough of a dramatic arc to register as purposeful storytelling, but carefully avoids unwanted narrative extravagance. The play understands that while contextual tension adds interest, it also functions as scaffolding for that post-war, blues-inspired Nashville-sound nostalgia.
The key to bringing this show to life is casting. With these well-known (and well-documented) performers, the actors need to conjure the look, sound, musicianship, and pertinent physicality of the subjects, and the cast of Ensemble’s production lives up to its “million dollar” name. Nicholas Voss is so adept at playing young Elvis that the role has become recurrent throughout his career. Blake Burgess’s Johnny Cash is so eerily accurate that I’m concerned the original Million Dollar Quartet producers may have dug up the man in black for DNA — just to have a series of production clones on hand. Will Riddle, another performer with previous productions of Million Dollar Quartet on his resume, brings a rough-and-tumble fight for survival to the room to balance Ian Fairlee’s (as Jerry Lee Lewis) cocky, sugared-up mania.
The cast of Ensemble’s Million Dollar Quartet treats this musical era with reverence and plays the old songs as if they were new. Come for the music and remember (or learn!) why this “new sound” was so vital to American social evolution. See Million Dollar Quartet at the New Vic Theater through December 22. etcsb.org
(From Left to Right) Ian Fairlee, Janaya Mahealani Jones, Gus Graham, Will Riddle, Jordan Lamoureux, Nick Voss and Blake Burgess star in the Ensemble Theatre Company production of “MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET,” directed by Brian McDonald and now playing at the New Vic Theatre in Santa Barbara. | Photo: Zach Mendez 
Nick Voss (center) stars with the company stars in the Ensemble Theatre Company production of “MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET,” directed by Brian McDonald and now playing at the New Vic Theatre in Santa Barbara. | Photo: Zach Mendez 
Janaya Mahealani Jones (center) stars with the company in the Ensemble Theatre Company production of “MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET,” directed by Brian McDonald and now playing at the New Vic Theatre in Santa Barbara. | Photo: Zach Mendez 
(From Left to Right) Ian Fairlee, Will Riddle, Nick Voss and Blake Burgess star in the Ensemble Theatre Company production of “MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET,” directed by Brian McDonald and now playing at the New Vic Theatre in Santa Barbara. | Photo: Zach Mendez 
(From Left to Right) Gus Graham, Will Riddle, Ian Fairlee, Nick Voss. Blake Burgess, Andy Hoff, and Janaya Mahealani Jones star in the Ensemble Theatre Company production of “MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET,” directed by Brian McDonald and now playing at the New Vic Theatre in Santa Barbara. | Photo: Zach Mendez 
The Ensemble Theatre Company production of “MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET,” directed by Brian McDonald and now playing at the New Vic Theatre in Santa Barbara. | Photo: Zach Mendez 
Nick Voss stars as “Elvis Presley” in the Ensemble Theatre Company production of “MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET,” directed by Brian McDonald and now playing at the New Vic Theatre in Santa Barbara. | Photo: Zach Mendez 
The Ensemble Theatre Company production of “MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET,” directed by Brian McDonald and now playing at the New Vic Theatre in Santa Barbara. | Photo: Zach Mendez
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