Review: ASF’s ‘Million Dollar Quartet' is musical delight

The Alabama Shakespeare Festival’s “Million Dollar Quartet” may be the most entertaining history lesson you will ever see or hear.

The Tony Award-nominated musical is based on one afternoon at Alabama-born Sam Phillips’ Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee — an afternoon when four of the greats who shaped early rock music happened to come together and play a legendary jam session.

It’s Dec. 4, 1956, and Carl Perkins, “the King of Rockabilly” (Billy Finn) is trying to record a comeback album. Phillips (Josh Canfield ) has hired a young, up-and-coming piano player named Jerry Lee Lewis (Michael Kurowski) to help Perkins with the comeback.

Another Sun Records artist, Johnny Cash (Chris Marsh Clark) drops by to talk about his contract.   Then the three are joined by “the King,” former Sun Records artist Elvis Presley, who shows up with his girlfriend, Dyanne (Fatima El-Bashir)

The next thing you know the most famous jam session in rock history is taking place.

What follows is not particularly dramatic (the deepest dramatic tension tends to involve things such as who sang which song first and who is signing a new contract), but it is wonderful fun.

The musical’s book written by Floyd Mutrux and Colin Escott, who locals will recognize as the  famed Hank Williams biographer, keeps it simple. Between songs, Phillips tells the audience about the performers’ backgrounds and how they came to sign with his label. As the musical superstars talk and interact, their current histories, worries and sometimes conflicts enter the conversation, much of it balancing the huge debt they know they owe Phillips with their desire to move to a larger, better-distributed label.

But the production is smart enough to know that it’s not the plot but the music that will win over the audience, and it does.  The result is a little-bit musical and a whole-lot musical revue.

Director David Ruttura, who was associate director of the original Broadway production and directed the U.S. launch of the national tour, gives us a seat in the studio to hear one of the greatest jam sessions in history. He gets plenty of help from scenic designer Edward T. Morris’ recreation of Sun Studios, Alex Neuman’s gorgeous sound design and Cory Pattak’s lighting design that helps emulate a concert experience.

Still, with entertainment like this, it all comes down to the onstage entertainers, and they are wonderful.

The performers — and they are more performers than actors — are superb, with three of the four central musicians having played the same roles in other productions. They manage to convey the essence of the musicians and their styles without simply impersonating them. While my favorite was Finn’s performance as Perkins, I suspect different audience members will have their own favorites. And they might not be just the four star musicians. Tucker Cruz Marshall as Perkins’ drummer Fluke, Roy James Brown as Perkins’ Brother Jay on walking bass and El-Bashir as Dyanne all create their own highlights..

The musical takes a few liberties with the truth for entertainment’s sake, but stays true to most of the history. Of the 22 songs performed in “Million Dollar Quartet,” only about three were actually played among the 40-or-so songs at the original jam, and while Elvis brought a girlfriend, she was a dancer, not a singer. But the main truth is audiences would rather hear songs they associate with these superstars such as “Great Balls of Fire,” “Hound Dog” and “I Walk the Line” rather than “Crazy Arms,” “Jingle Bells” and “Keeper of the Key.” And no one who hears El-Bashir’s show-stopping numbers is going to complain that she was portrayed as a singer rather than a dancer.

In fact, it’s hard to imagine anyone in the audience complaining about anything. “Million Dollar Quartet” is fast, simple, joyful entertainment, and don’t dream of leaving before the end, which is the highlight of a show filled with highlights.

WANT TO GO?

WHAT: “Million Dollar Quartet”

WHERE: Alabama Shakespeare Festival’s Festival Stage

WHEN: Performances through May 7

TICKETS: Log on to www.asf.net

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Review: ASF’s ‘Million Dollar Quartet' is musical delight