"Elvis Presley's iconic ditty Blue Suede Shoes has become a definitive version of the rock and roll standard. But in 1955, one year prior to the song burning up the charts, it was Carl Perkins' version of the iconic rockabilly tune that was introduced to the masses. While Perkins was a massive talent, he was not a 21-year-old Elvis Presley-level talent."
"In San Jose Stage's production of the rockabilly jukebox play with music Million Dollar Quartet, Presley (Cody Craven) is one of four rock and roll pillars who are young and hungry, using the legendary Sun Records studio in Memphis to launch into infinite fame. Others in the mix include Perkins (Tarif Pappu), Johnny Cash (Bryant Cobb) and Jerry Lee Lewis (Nick Kenbrandt). The show functions mostly as a lightly plotted showcase of some gargantuan music talents, with head-bopping the proper audience movement of the day."
"The story is a dramatization of an actual occurrence, when a chance jam session in December of 1956 gathered the musicians together. Lewis was the latest find of Sun Records founder Sam Phillips (Teddy Spencer), and was in the studio to work out some songs with him and Perkins. But in walks Cash, who has business to discuss with Phillips, followed by ascendant superstar Presley and girlfriend Dyanne (Ashley Garlick)."
Million Dollar Quartet portrays four young, hungry rock and roll pioneers — Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis — gathered at Sun Records in Memphis during a chance December 1956 jam session. The production casts Cody Craven as Presley, Tarif Pappu as Perkins, Bryant Cobb as Cash and Nick Kenbrandt as Lewis. The show operates as a lightly plotted rockabilly jukebox musical that foregrounds famous songs and energetic audience head-bopping. Conflicts in the script are large but easily dismissed, while Randall King's self-assured direction emphasizes letting the performers showcase a smorgasbord of the quartet's most famed hits.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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