MDQ at West End Live

OK so I know I've not posted any updates for a long time, but things have been hectic.

Here are some clips of Million Dollar Quartet at West End Live 2011.

West End Live 2011 - Million Dollar Quartet - Hound Dog

West End Live 2011 - Million Dollar Quartet

West End Live 2011 - Million Dollar Quartet

MDQ announces extension to April 2012

Million Dollar Quartet extends to 28 April 2012 Million Dollar Quartet has extended its booking period by 7 months - tickets are now on sale to 28 April 2012.

The show opened at the Noel Coward Theatre 28 Feb 2011, following previews from 8 Feb, to moderate notices from the popular press.

Million Dollar Quartet is inspired by the actual event that took place on 4 December 1956 at Sun Records in Memphis when Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis came together to make music and ended up making history.

Features over 20 of the greatest rock ’n’ roll, gospel, R&B and country hits.

The musical has book by Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux, originally conceived by Floyd Mutrux.

It is directed by Eric Schaeffer, designed by Derek McLane, lighting by Howell Binkley, sound by Kai Harada. Musical arrangements and supervision Chuck Mead Cast includes Bill Ward (Sam Phillips), Michael Malarkey (Elvis Presley), Ben Goddard (Jerry Lee Lewis), Derek Hagen (Johnny Cash).

Produced in London by Relevant Theatricals, John Cossette Productions, American Pop Anthology, John Gore, Thomas B. McGrath, James L. Nederlander, Joseph Smith and Michael McCabe.

More Reviews

In an attempt to catch up below are further reviews from the opening (press) night of Million Dollar Quartet.



Million Dollar Quartet at the Noel Coward Theatre
Posted by Milly Kenny-Ryder in Theatre
You may have seen the bright Million Dollar Quartet sign near Leicester Square, it has been up for some time. The show celebrates the night that four of the greatest rock’n'roll legends came together: Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins under the guidance of Sam Phillips, record producer at Sun Records.
On this night in 1956 the four have an epic jam session and make music history.
This show is lots of fun, and the score will delight visitors of all ages. The production is less a musical than a tribute act, with four very talented impersonators. There is little narrative, so if you need the loo halfway through, the most you’re going to miss is a favourite Elvis number. While watching, I found many parallels with Woody Sez, the show on just round the corner showcasing folk artist Woody Guthrie’s life and music. There are also similarities with box office success Jersey Boys, particularly in the staging that favours dramatic static poses and strong silhouettes.
Of the four performers, Ben Goddard sparkles brightest, playing the cheeky Jerry Lee Lewis; he has a magnetic spirit and an irresistible charm. He is an exceptional pianist and has a voice that is full of fire. Goddard energises the score matching the original Lewis’s star quality. Robert Britton Lyons has a tricky task playing the less famous musician Carl Perkins, luckily his guitar skills make up for the slightly bland characterisation. Both Derek Hagen (Johnny Cash) and Michael Malarkey (Elvis Presley) fulfil the brief as their respective legends; it’s a pleasure to listen to their renditions of some classic numbers and they seem to love being up there. There is secure back-up too from Francesca Jackson as Presley’s squeeze Dyanne, and Bill Ward as the enthusiastic ringleader Sam Phillips.
Although Million Dollar Quartet may not be as durable as its competitors, no-one can deny the talent and fun that the show displays by the bucket-load.

Kate Kellaway
The Observer, Sunday 6 March 2011
Million Dollar Quartet focuses on 4 December 1956, when Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins were together at Sun Records, Memphis, Tennessee. This creates an opportunistic excuse for an almost non-stop performance of their hits. This jukebox musical plays so safe it ought to be dangerous, but a fresh cast, directed with pizzazz, by Eric Schaeffer, saves it. Ben Goddard, as Jerry Lee Lewis, is a sensation: manically musical. Michael Malarkey has an admirable stab at Elvis (an impossible undertaking). Robert Britton Lyons (the only cast member imported from the US) convinces as Carl Perkins. And Derek Hagen exactly catches Johnny Cash's brooding quality. The "story" is held together by record producer/narrator Sam Phillips (a capable Bill Ward). I took one of my teenage sons along. He has had no experience of blue suede shoes, great balls of fire or of hound dogs – at least, not musically speaking. "The music was great," he said.

The Million Dollar Quartet
Noel Coward Theatre, London WC2
Sunday 06 March 2011
by Dennis Poole
A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On could be a signature tune for 1956, the year that gave us the 20th Congress of the CPSU and some notable events in Hungary, Vietnam and Suez.
And it's the concluding number in The Million Dollar Quartet, a new musical which celebrates an impromptu music session held at the Sun recording studios in Memphis, Tennessee, on December 4 that year.
The prototype supergroup of Carl Perkins (Robert Britton Lyons), Elvis Presley (Michael Malarkey), Johnny Cash (Derek Hagen) and Jerry Lee Lewis (Ben Goddard) jam their way through a couple of dozen rock'n'roll standards and the show also features the owner of Sun Records Sam Phillips (Bill Ward) and Elvis's girlfriend Dyanne (Francesca Jackson).
The sparse narrative centres on the perceived tensions between the main characters with Perkins, resentful of Presley's greater success with his own first record Blue Suede Shoes, now looking for the next big hit.
Financially strapped, Phillips had recently sold Presley's contract to RCA and is keen to sign Cash to a three-year contract extension. Cash, having already been approached by Columbia records with a lucrative offer, is torn between loyalty to Phillips and the glittering prizes.
Presley is shown to be uncomfortable with the musical and commercial directions being laid out for him by RCA and Colonel Tom Parker and he revels in the simpler pleasures of jamming with the boys, while Lewis provides the spice in the mix. Anarchic, irreverent and with an outrageous talent he is restlessly impatient for the big break.
Floyd Mutrux, who originally conceived the idea for the show, has taken considerable liberty with historical accuracy. Leaving aside the contrived relationships, only three of the songs in the show featured in the original encounter.
But what the hell, this ain't serious drama. It's a 90-minute romp through some of the early gems of rock'n'roll.
Musically the show relies heavily upon Goddard's manic piano playing and Lyons's driving lead guitar with workmanlike contributions from Malarkey and Hagen on acoustic guitar. Hagen effectively captures Cash's bass vocal tones particularly in I Walk the Line, but Malarkey is less convincing as Presley.
Unsurprisingly Lyons, who transfers from the Broadway production, gives an excellent representation as Perkins and is vocally and instrumentally spot on. The Devil, as always, has the best lines and Goddard as Jerry Lee steals the show with exuberant renditions of Great Balls of Fire and A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On, while Francesca Jackson (Dyanna) offers a stunning version of Fever.
The front-line performers are well supported by Gez Gerrard as Perkin's brother Jay on string bass and there's efficient drum support by Adam Riley as Fluke.
If you're nostalgic for genuine rock 'n'roll go and see this show. But don't be expecting to dance in the aisles, 'cos there aren't any.


This is South Wales
Saturday, March 05, 2011, 09:00
Hopeful is one in a million
SWANSEA stage star Francesca Jackson has finally proved Andrew Lloyd Webber wrong by landing a top West End role.
Francesca made the live finals of BBC reality contest I'd Do Anything, but she was voted off meaning she didn't get to play Nancy on stage in Oliver! Three years on she has shown Lord Webber she belongs in the West End where she is now starring in hit show Million Dollar Quartet.
In an exclusive chat at the opening night, Francesca told me: "It's great to have the chance to show I'm good enough to be in the West End. It was really tough when I was voted off I'd Do Anything so getting this role has meant a lot.
"It's definitely one of the best jobs I've ever had!
"It's been such a laugh so far and I'm really enjoying it."
The show, playing at the Noel Coward Theatre, is about music legends Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis during their time at Sun Records in Memphis.
And Ystalyfera-born Francesca, 27, plays the only female part in the show, Dyanne, which opened to rave reviews this week.
She told me: "The boys are very protective over me because I'm the only girl. They all seem to want to look after me!
"It's great playing a sexy role, but in truth the curves aren't all mine — I wear padding all over. It means I sweat an awful lot on stage."

The Cast on ITV this morning 21/2/11

Million Dollar Quartet Press Night

Ok so I apologise for not getting these up sooner, but have been caught up with work and stuff so here goes;

THE ARTS DESK

Tuesday, 01 March 2011 00:02

Million Dollar Quartet, Noël Coward Theatre

Written by Joe Muggs

Michael Malarkey as an "easygoing" Elvis Tristram Kenton

As acting challenges go it borders on the foolhardy: impersonate not just in looks and mannerisms but in musical skill too some of the most truly iconic figures of the 20th century. And do it up close and personal with an audience who know the subjects' work inside out to boot. It seems almost impossible that a cast could manage to convincingly portray the (real) musical meeting of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins at Sam Phillips's Sun Studios in 1956, but Million Dollar Quartet has managed successful and continuing runs in Chicago and on Broadway, so they must be doing something right, mustn't they?

Well, to a degree. There's no denying that as a spectacle it is quite something to behold. The four main players' ability, singing and playing every song with only a rhythm section for back-up, to sound like their subject ranged from excellent to uncanny, and they weren't too shabby on the physical appearances either. Clearly casting this show – all bar one member were cast completely afresh in the transfer to London – must have been a long and rigorous process to say the very least. The performances mesh impressively too, not just a set of impersonations, but true ensemble work, with the musical numbers perfectly segued in and out of exposition and physical comedy.

'There was never any sense of the devil in Jerry Lee, no sense of the danger and raging fire'

And yet, and yet... while there is absolutely no danger of getting bored through the non-stop 100-minute performance, and quite a few moments of boggling accomplishment, it all too rarely provides the real thrills that something tapping into the mainline of rock'n'roll should be able to access. A key moment comes very early on with Ben Goddard's first solo song as Jerry Lee Lewis (pictured right): every tic, every flick of the curled fringe, every vamp and trick on the piano is there – it's a fantastically engaging simulacrum – but though we certainly get the sense of a belligerent young country boy wild with ambition, there is never any sense of the devil in Jerry Lee, no sense of the danger and raging fire that are visible in even the earliest available footage of the real thing.

Likewise Derek Hagan's Johnny Cash: certainly one of the best soundalikes I've ever heard, and physically not a bad resemblance – but oddly awkward in his stance, lacking the utter assurance that made The Man in Black as much as did his baritone. And rock musician Robert Britton Lyons as Carl Perkins, despite having originally created the role himself in Chicago, is very obviously not an actor: great in all the scenes involving musical interplay and fluent in his speech, but when it comes to individual expression he relies mainly on a repertoire of about six eyebrow movements.

Easily the best of the bunch, amazingly, is Michael Malarkey as Elvis (pictured with group, left): brushing away the memories of a million terrible impersonators, he homes in on Presley's easygoing charm, playing him with a lightness of touch that gives us one of the show's best moments. A flashback sequence in which Sam Phillips (a sparkily avuncular Bill Ward) recalls his first meeting with the young Presley suddenly turned electric when the enormity of what it meant to be hearing “That's All Right” performed for the first time became clear. Likewise towards the end when we see Phillips stand outside the studio with “Great Balls of Fire” being recorded inside, the sense that this is a real historical moment brings everything vividly to life for just a second.

And therein lies the problem with the show: although it might seem churlish to pick such an astoundingly executed spectacle up for not being transcendently great, it is a near impossibility not to be constantly reminded of the possibility of that greatness by what is being depicted on stage. No matter how brilliantly choreographed the action and charming the actors, they are always asking for comparison with some of the greatest or most epochal performances of all time. As a top-notch revue, as a series of genuinely great set pieces held together with just enough plot, pathos and historical accuracy to make it more than a simple jukebox show, Million Dollar Quartet is a major achievement, and it's a good night out. In theory it should be a great one – but achieving the necessary suspension of disbelief is a more difficult obstacle than you might expect

FINANCIAL TIMES

Million Dollar Quartet, Noël Coward Theatre, London

By Ian Shuttleworth

Published: March 1 2011 18:49 | Last updated: March 1 2011 18:49

On December 4 1956 in the Sun Records studio in Memphis, Tennessee, Johnny Cash (just then making a name for himself), Carl Perkins (who had already had his greatest hit with his own song “Blue Suede Shoes”), Jerry Lee Lewis (newly signed) and Elvis Presley (who by this point was definitively Elvis) held a jam session. Tapes survive of 40-odd songs. This stage musical includes only a couple of dozen, and a mere three sung during that session: “Peace in the Valley”, “Down by the Riverside” and Chuck Berry’s “Brown Eyed Handsome Man”.

There would, after all, simply be no audience for a show that brought these four talents together, even in surrogate form, only to have them faithfully tackle country and gospel numbers. Writers Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux opt for a jukebox musical. They even throw in a couple of numbers for Elvis’s girlfriend (who did not perform that day, and has moreover been renamed here).

This is far from the most perfunctory of compilation musicals; it is not simply a mock-concert in which the “acts” trot out their biggies. There is narrative: its stories of Cash and Perkins ending their Sun contracts take major liberties with chronology, but no more than having the Quartet belt out songs not written at the time. There is character interaction, especially between Perkins and Lewis.

Ben Goddard’s Lewis could not be calmed down by a truckload of tranquillisers, and he ably reproduces the Killer’s psychopathic piano-playing style (all the music in the show is played by those on stage). Robert Britton Lyons plays a mean guitar as Perkins, though his style sounds more like Link Wray. (Show me a sharecropper with a gold-top Gibson Les Paul guitar and I’ll show you a gentleman farmer.) Derek Hagen makes an efficient Johnny Cash, Michael Malarkey has the most invidious task as Elvis, and Bill Ward as producer and label owner Sam Phillips is a glorified master of ceremonies, quite unlike surviving footage of Phillips himself.

There are many worse jukebox shows around, and the legendary status of the original event gives this show a broad potential audience, which is just as well, since most of 1956’s teenagers are today’s septuagenarians.

Million Dollar Quartet doesn't throb with heart and soul

Smooth, not sultry: Michael Malarkey as Elvis Presley

By Henry Hitchings
1 Mar 2011

The success of Jersey Boys shows there's an appetite for musicals that are part jukebox extravaganza, part documentary - full of hit songs faithfully delivered, and spiced with humour and testosterone. Million Dollar Quartet, arriving in the West End after making a splash in America, is just such an exercise in upbeat nostalgia.

One day in December 1956, the studios of Sun Records in Memphis witnessed a remarkable convergence of talent, when Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis combined for a jam session. That event is the inspiration for this energetic workout, conceived by Floyd Mutrux and brought to life with the help of Colin Escott.

In Eric Schaeffer's efficient production the hits come thick and fast: Great Balls of Fire, Hound Dog, I Walk the Line, Blue Suede Shoes. Presiding over matters is Sam Phillips (Bill Ward), the proprietor of Sun, whose commentary stitches the songs into a somewhat clunky narrative.

The music is recreated in an enjoyably vigorous style. The performances go beyond being impersonations, though of course they have to satisfy in that respect. Ben Goddard stands out as Lewis, with effortless technical skill, plain-spoken forwardness and brazen peculiarity.

Michael Malarkey's Elvis seems a bit understated - smooth without being sultry. Derek Hagen's Cash is credible, yet I wanted more of the real Cash's rich, rumbling pain in his interpretation. Robert Britton Lyons, the one survivor from Broadway, arguably has the hardest job as Perkins, now much less famous than the other three. But he pulls it off, playing a mean guitar.

While the ensemble work is vibrant, this is a show that doesn't exactly throb with heart and soul. When at one point we hear a crackly recording from the Fifties, it has a magnetic quality that the modern version never manages.

Despite the proficiency of the performances, there's a lack of visceral thrill here. Million Dollar Quartet is decent entertainment, yet fans of the music, even as they enjoy this account of it, are likely to find themselves hankering after their old 45s.

The Stage

Million Dollar Quartet

Published Tuesday 1 March 2011 at 10:20 by Mark Shenton

Here’s a pop compilation concert show with a difference - it actually happened, sort of, on December 4, 1956. At the Memphis recording studios of Sun Records, four rock ‘n’ roll giants - Elvis Presley (who was originally on the label but had already decamped to RCA before becoming a movie star, too), Jerry Lee Lewis (who had just arrived on the scene), and Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash (both shown here about to defect to Columbia) - got together for an informal jamming session.

THE STAGE

Million Dollar Quartet

Published Tuesday 1 March 2011 at 10:20 by Mark Shenton

Million Dollar Quartet seeks to recreate it, and imagines some of the conversations and interactions that might have occurred between the four men and their Svengali-like record producer Sam Phillips, with Elvis’ girlfriend Dyanne - who spends most of the evening smiling sweetly - and an additional onstage bass player and drummer looking on.

All of which feels very authentic, passionate and compelling, except that it didn’t happen quite this way. Not even the playlist was the same, as over half of what they sang on the day were in fact gospel songs.

The creators of this show, originally conceived and directed by Floyd Mutrux, try to flummox us by effectively giving us a jukebox of some of their greatest hits instead, like Blue Suede Shoes (originally recorded by Perkins but then made more famous by Presley) and Great Balls of Fire (originally recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis at Sun Studios nearly a year later).

There are also plenty of covers of other songs of the era, like Fever (not recorded by Elvis until 1960, but here recreated as a song for his girlfriend to sing) and the Dean Martin hit Memories Are Made of This (which was not recorded by Cash until 1996).

Nor is the chronology accurate on the facts. It wasn’t until two years later that Cash and Perkins left for Columbia. But if you can put aside the spurious history, the show succeeds triumphantly in making you feel the joy of the music-making. On this score, in every sense, there isn’t a slicker, more polished set of impressionists in town.

The quartet here of Ben Goddard (as Jerry Lee Lewis, thumping at the keyboards with real passion and panache), Robert Britton Lyons (recreating his Broadway performance as Carl Perkins), Derek Hagen (as Johnny Cash) and Michael Malarkey (as Elvis) fully live up to the show’s Million Dollar billing of them.

The West End may already be filled with shows that draw on old pop catalogues, from Abba and Queen to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, as well as Dreamboats and Petticoats and Dirty Dancing, but the market for pop nostalgia is seemingly bottomless, and should be well satisfied by this latest accomplished entry.

The Hollywood Reporter

Million Dollar Quartet: Theater Review

3:58 PM 3/1/2011 by Ray Bennett

Tristram Kenton

The Bottom Line

Broadway’s Sun Records hit rocks London’s West End.

Venue

Noel Coward Theatre, London (Through Oct. 1)

Cast

Robert Britton Lyons, Derek Hagen, Ben Goddard, Michael Malarkey, Bill Ward, Francesca Jackson

Director

Eric Schaeffer

The production, directed by Eric Schaeffer and playing through Oct. 1 in London's Noel Coward Theatre, isn't so much a musical as it is a concert.

LONDON -- Million Dollar Quartet is a straight-forward jukebox musical, but since the music comes from Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis at Sun Records in the 1950s, it’s not your average jukebox.

Like Sunday in the Park With George, the stage show is based on a single image, and like that Stephen Sondheim classic, it attempts to flesh out how the picture came about. That’s where the comparison ends, as it’s not so much a musical as a concert.

In this case, it’s the famous photo of the four singers at a piano in Sam Phillips’ Memphis recording studio, and the book by Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux reveals something about what was going on in those heady days of rock ’n’ roll in its infancy — but not a whole lot.

There is, however, a whole lot of shaking going on as 23 numbers from that time are given full measure by director Eric Schaeffer, who has brought his creative team from Broadway. The show is as slick as Elvis’ hair.

American Robert Britton Lyons, who originated the role of Perkins on Broadway and has appeared in every production since, joins an otherwise British cast. He has more of the strut and presence of an early rock star than the others, although Derek Hagen as Cash, Ben Goddard as Lewis and Michael Malarkey are all terrific performers.

Malarkey more resembles Joaquin Phoenix as Cash in Walk the Line than Elvis. He’s a little too compact for the legendary performer, although he does catch Presley’s sneer in the right light, and his baritone is strong if not an echo of the original in numbers such as “That’s All Right, Mama,” “Peace in the Valley” and “Hound Dog.”

Hagen looks less like Cash than John C. Reilly playing Dewey Cox, but he has Cash’s way with a rhythm guitar, and his rich, deep voice is a match for the Man in Black on songs including “Sixteen Tons,” “I Walk the Line” and “Riders in the Sky.”

Goddard is a little chunky for the skinny Lewis, but he has his blond locks and powerful vocal delivery. He pounds out “Real Wild Child,” “Great Balls of Fire” and “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” with tremendous verve.

It’s Lyons, however, who parades the real stuff of rockabilly. Like Perkins, he’s lean with slicked-back hair and has a mean way with a lead guitar. He conveys the bitterness that Perkins had over Presley winning all the glory for “Blue Suede Shoes,” which he performs to kick off the show, but he also has the charm of a man whose compositions such as “Matchbox” and “Honey Don’t” became staples for later rock bands. The latter was not in the earlier productions but has been added to the West End show. The program makes a point of thanking Paul McCartney, who now owns the song.

Francesca Jackson is a welcome feminine presence as a girlfriend of Elvis, and she demonstrates genuine flare on “Fever” and “I Hear You Knocking.” Gez Gerrard on double bass and Adam Riley on drums remain onstage throughout and give the music the correct propulsion.

Lewis and Perkins trade insults throughout the show, which makes a break for Bill Ward as Phillips, who tells what story there is of the four artists and Sun Records before they went on to fame and riches and he just got fabulously wealthy from radio stations and Holiday Inn stock.

The evening ends with the boys in gleaming jackets as the audience rises irresistibly to the beat of some mightily impressive and infectious rockabilly.

Broadway World Review

BWW Reviews: MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET, Noel Coward Theatre, Feb 28 2011

Tuesday, March 1, 2011; Posted: 06:03 PM - by Robert Gould

"Goodness gracious - great balls of fire! Not another jukebox musical!" That may well be what many people will be screaming on hearing of the opening of Million Dollar Quartet at London's Noel Coward Theatre. But it would be a mistake to dismiss this show as "yet another" anything. Even for a jukebox sceptic like me, it's a hugely entertaining show.

Inspired by an actual event on 4 December 1956 at Sun Records in Memphis, Million Dollar Quartet recreates the event masterminded by Sun Records' founder Sam Phillips when legendary stars Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis performed together for the only time in their careers. Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux's book examines the friendship, jealousies and divided loyalties of the stars in a workmanlike fashion which has some nice touches of humour. Eric Shaeffer's direction manages to hold everything together tightly and allows the songs to emerge naturally as "performance" numbers which - - unlike in many other jukebox shows - never seem forced. And the songs are all Rock'n Roll, Blues or Country classics - including "Blue Suede Shoes", "Hound Dog", "I Walk The Line", "Sixteen Tons", etc.

But what makes the show a real treat is the collection of top-drawer performances from the eight-strong cast of actors/singers/musicians. Gez Gerrard and Adam Riley are both consummate musicians in the supporting "band"; Bill Ward exudes charismatic charm as Sam Phillips; Francesca Jackson adds a touch of class as Elvis's girlfriend, Dyanne - delivering a haunting and sultry vocal of "Fever" and taking the roof off the house with "I Hear You Knocking"; Derek Hagen's Johnny Cash makes everyone in the theatre believe the real Mr. Cash is on the stage; Robert Britton Lyons (who created the role of Carl Perkins on Broadway) makes a sensational acting and singing West End debut; Michael Malarkey wears the crown of The King with total credibility and demonstrates he has the vocals to match his considerable acting talents. But even in this outstanding company, Ben Goddard succeeds in stealing the show with a highly energised, aptly off-the-wall performance as Jerry Lee Lewis which proves he not only possesses great skills as an actor but is also a truly amazing pianist and a genuine vocal powerhouse.

To answer the bottom line questions - is it high art? No. Is it great fun? Hell, yes! Does it look like a show worthy of being a West End hit? I would say it looks like a million dollars.

First Official Review from Press Night

Well with Press Night Last Night, the first review is in from Michael Billington at the Guardian.

Michael Billington
guardian.co.uk, Monday 28 February 2011 22.15 GMT

Poignant moment … Michael Malarkey as Elvis Presley in Million Dollar Quartet. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian
1956 was a momentous year: the Suez crisis, the Hungarian revolution, Khruschev's denuniciation of Stalin. But it was also a time of cultural upheaval, and this exuberantly nostalgic show recreates the occasion on 4 December when Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins all converged on the Sun Records studio in Memphis for some impromptu music-making.
Sam Phillips, who turned an old radiatior shop into the pioneering Sun studio and who hosts the get-together, is described by one of the group as "the father of rock'n'roll"; and Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux's story records the poignant moment at which the sons abandon the father. Elvis has already been sold to RCA and become a Hollywood star, and the others now accept that it is time to move on. But, though the show pinpoints the eclipse of the Sun and the tensions within the group, such as Perkins's resentment of Presley's refashioning of Blue Suede Shoes, what we see on stage is a celebration; and, if you're of a certain generation, it's a joy to hear once again numbers such as Hound Dog, Great Balls of Fire and I Walk the Line.
Obviously, the cast have to compete with our memories of the real thing, but Ben Goddard does a particularly good job of conveying the anarchic wildness of Jerry Lee Lewis. But Michael Malarkey as Elvis, Derek Hagen as Johnny Cash and Robert Britton Lyons, the one authentic American, as Carl Perkins offer substance as well as shadows. Bill Ward as the pathfinding Phillips and Francesca Jackson as Elvis's squeeze, who offers a notably sultry, microphone-caressing version of Fever, add to the gaiety of a show that taps into all our yesterdays.

Previews - Million Dollar Quartet

Ok, so firstly I apologise for not having updated sooner, but have been a little busy.

Tonight is the start ofpreviews for Million Dollar Quartet, before the official opening night on Feb 28th.

Here are some links to recent articles and some of the publicity shots.

Article Parade Piece

Pop Icons Article

Playbill Article

Million Dollar Quartet

It's now all official - Fran is the lucky lady who will be playing the lead female in the West Ends new show Million Dollar Quartet which previews from Feb 8th at the Noel Coward Theatre.

For those of you who do not know what the show is about,

A smash hit in New York and Chicago, the Tony® award-winning MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET tells the electrifying story of the night ELVIS PRESLEY, JOHNNY CASH, CARL PERKINS and JERRY LEE LEWIS came together to make music, and ended up making history...

Inspired by the actual event, that took place on 4 December 1956 at Sun Records in Memphis, this ecstatic and engaging musical is a story of fame, friendship, discovery, divided loyalties, professional jealousy and incredible music as four of the music industry's most extraordinary talents, all in their creative prime, made music together for the first and only time in their careers.

The legendary meeting was masterminded by Sun Records' founder SAM PHILLIPS, who discovered all four of the musicians, and brought ELVIS PRESLEY (and his then girlfriend) back to the recording studio that launched him to stardom. Together with Sun Records' fast-rising new superstar JOHNNY CASH and CARL PERKINS, who was still chasing his next big hit after writing and recording Blue Suede Shoes, the fourth member of this impromptu "quartet" was Phillips' latest signing, JERRY LEE LEWIS.

MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET features over 20 classic hits from a golden era of music including: Blue Suede Shoes, Folsom Prison Blues, Fever, Memories Are Made Of This, That's All Right, Down By The Riverside, Sixteen Tons, (There Will Be) Peace In The Valley, I Walk The Line, I Hear You Knocking, Great Balls Of Fire, Hound Dog, Riders In The Sky, See You Later Alligator and Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

Fran plays the role of Dyanne - Elvis Presley's girlfriend of the time. It has since been discovered after the show commenced on Broadway that the lady in question is one Marilyn Knowles-Riehl Formerly Evans.



Best of Luck goes to Fran and all the cast as they continue with rehearsals in preparation for next month.

Full articles on the shows casting can be seen here

London Evening Standard

Official London Theatre Announcement

Whats On Stage

Broadway.Com

UK Theatre Tickets

The Show's Official Site

Official Website

Article interviewing Marilyn Knowles-Rheil

Marilyn Knowles-Rheil Interview/span>