Wyatt Andrew Brownell, Cason Day, Brian Steinberg, and Bryant Cobb in Million Dollar Quartet
Jukebox musicals make money – nothing an audience loves more than a passel of tunes they already know. For 2024, the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre has planned a whole season of nothing but, and their summertime opener comes by its framing device honestly.
Million Dollar Quartet is the dramatization of a real-world spontaneous recording session in 1956 at the self-proclaimed "birthplace of rock and roll”: Sun Records in Memphis (though Cleveland's Alan Freed was spinning the plattahs that mattah before that studio opened). Director Courtney Crouse and music director Sabin Fisher, along with their cast, crew, and production staff, have crafted an extraordinarily entertaining production bursting with high-level musicianship, engaging acting, and visual verve, telling of a legendary studio session involving Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis.
The show's book is by Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux, and it premiered in Florida in 2006 and made its way to Broadway in 2010, earning three Tony nominations and winning one. In 2016, the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse offered their production, while the Timber Lake Playhouse staged Million Dollar Quartet Christmas last year. (This holiday-themed sequel may not be as much of a stretch as it seems, given that the original Sun Records collaboration took place in December.)
I knew 18 of the 22 songs here – some via their cover versions by Iggy Pop ("Real Wild Child"), George Thorogood ("Who Do You Love?"), and Dave Edmunds ("I Hear You Knocking"). However, I heard plenty of the original recordings of "Folsom Prison Blues," "Hound Dog," and more, thanks to my music-loving mama and whatever radio station she had on.
The head of Sun Records, and our narrator Sam Phillips, is portrayed by James Paul Stover, and the performer nails his Southern-fried characterization. He's the good-old-boy-est of all the good old boys there: a blustery, boisterous, fast-talking (and, unfortunately, sometimes unintelligible) businessman, with a touch of the slippery dodginess typical of many music-industry executives, then and now. Here, Sam is the guy who'd break you up with great stories until about the fourth hour, when you'd start edging toward the door and checking whether you still had your wallet.
Cason Day plays rock-and-roll founding father Perkins. It's Day's third time in this role, and he exudes casual, calm professionalism, exhibiting his incredible guitar-picking prowess without a drop of sweat bedewing his forehead. I love this fictional version of Carl, especially when he briefly (and justifiably) explodes. Wyatt Andrew Brownell plays Lewis for the third time, as well – Million Dollar Quartet's brash, loud, cocky Next Big Thing, though no one believes it but Sam and Jerry Lee. I was shocked when, during the foursome's opening number, Brownell stared down at the keys, tentatively poking out chords like someone who'd accidentally wandered onstage. Well, he'd sure played me like a piano, as during his first "official" song he tore it up wildly just like the real Jerry Lee, amazingly agile on the keyboard with both fingers and feet.
There's something strongly compelling about Bryant Cobb's portrayal of Cash. Without posturing or yelling, he captured my attention with his low-key demeanor, voice, and fretboard skills. I felt deeply that Johnny had triumphed over a past of poverty and hardship – as indeed all these men had – but that no matter what came next, he'd handle it with grace. I loved his Act II opener "Sixteen Tons," a lethally catchy folk-style hit. I do wish Cobb's numbers had been transposed up a key or two, but maybe the performance license forbade it.
Refreshingly, Brian Steinberg plays Presley as a real person, and doesn't hit us over the head with yet another stale impression. His Elvis-ness does come out in performance with that renowned posturing, and Steinberg's voice is darned convincing, especially during ballads and when he starts phrases with a quiet yelp. Elvis is the undisputed star in the studio, but his bearing is of a self-effacing young man, as described, decades later, by real-life, short-term girlfriend Marilyn Knowles.
Who the heck is she? Well, she was in the studio that day, and here, she's reimagined as Dyanne, a knockout singer who brings a welcome breath of estrogen to the room. Portrayer Riley Francis not only gives the guys a chance to figuratively dog-howl and pull at the leash, she also joins in the music with an outstanding voice and sizzling presence. I've heard many versions of "Fever," but hers is genuinely hot and surprisingly fresh.
Dyanne and Sam aside, it's never just a quartet in this studio. In Crouse's production, Kyle Wells plays Carl's brother Jay, an upright bassist. (His brother Clayton was the bassist in real life – a fact that I'm surprised popular-music-historian librettist Escott got wrong.) Wells gets up to a few fun, showy feats, too. Drummer W.S. "Fluke" Holland, unfortunately stuck behind his kit, is played by Darrell J. Johnston, whom I'd like to see again in a larger role.
There were spots in this Million Dollar Quartet when I wished the actors would've held for applause before their next lines, but Thursday was opening night, and I understand nerves. Overall, the production was as smooth and satisfying as fresh strawberry ice cream in the summer heat. It's a full-length show, and there were encores, but I still wished it were longer. It's so easy to love these rockabilly, gospel, country, and early rock 'n' roll hits. Memories are made of this.
Million Dollar Quartet runs at the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre (311 Riverview Drive, Clinton IA) through June 23, and more information and tickets are available by calling (563)242-6760 and visiting ClintonShowboat.org.
