‘Million Dollar Quartet’ royalty rocks out

New ‘50s jukebox show neatly mixes myth and music

BY MICHAEL SOMMERS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

BROADWAY REVIEW

Lovers of old school rock ‘n' roll will get a big bang out of "Million Dollar Quartet," a mighty slick jukebox musical powered by a dynamite song stack and dynamic portrayals of the four legends singing ‘em.

Several hunks of musical history are served hot and juicy by the new show that opened Sunday at the Nederlander Theatre. Loosely based on an actual incident, the situation unites young Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley in a Memphis recording studio in late 1956.

A tetchy Perkins is cutting what he hopes will be his smash follow-up to "Blue Suede Shoes" and scuffling with Lewis, the studio's new and cocky piano player, when Cash arrives to renew (or not) his contract with Sun Records owner Sam Phillips. A few songs later, in wanders Sun alum Presley with a babe on his arm, visiting his hometown on a break from Hollywood. Soon they are all jamming.

The story is narrated directly by Phillips, the maverick producer who gave these guys their first big break Tiring of running his shoestring empire, the wily Phillips is considering selling out to RCA even as his discoveries ponder their own career options.

Sandwiched between the passing bits of bio and drama are more than 20 vintage songs — rockabilly, gospel, country, R & B — ranging from "I Walk the Line" to "Great Balls of Fire." These ‘50s nifties are slammed out by excellent actor-singer-musicians who deliver astonishingly believable vocal and physical impressions of the rock ‘n' roll icons.

Impishly suggesting a choir boy gone wrong, shock-headed Levi Kreis wildly pounds a fiery piano as the ambitious Lewis. A looming figure all in black, soft-spoken, sad-eyed Lance Guest soulfully depicts Cash. The hot-wired Robert Britton Lyons is a pugnacious Perkins. A nicely understated Eddie Clendening is completely charming as a gentlemanly Presley who can get musically all shook up in a flash.

Very pretty in pink as Presley's squeeze, Elizabeth Stanley lends a playful, warm personality and bright vocals to the shindig presided over by Hunter Foster whose feisty, fast-talking Phillips confidently drives the show. Drummer Larry Lelli and bass player Corey Kaiser are the personable backup musicians.

Smoothly written by Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux, this tightly-woven mix of myth and music may be somewhat synthetic, but packs plenty of hard-rocking entertainment in an intermission-free 90 minutes.

Pacing the show swiftly, director Eric Schaeffer puts a glossy sheen on the proceedings with a handsome set by Derek McLane, blue blazes of lighting by Howell Binkley and especially smart costume design by Jane Greenwood whose collaboration with wig and makeup artists transforms the leads into lookalikes.

For all of the sweat and cunning invested in this enterprise, there's a fresh sense of spontaneity to the joyful music-making in "Million Dollar Quartet" that melts away any scent of the waxworks. If this event seems more suited to Branson than Broadway customers, it still offers audiences one very hot time.

"Million Dollar Quartet" continues an open-end run at the Nederlander Theatre, 208 W. 41st St., New York. Call (212) 307-4100 or visit www.milliondollarquartetlive.com.