Million Dollar Quartet
Sharon Playhouse. Sharon, Conn.
By Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux.
Directed by Greg Santos.
“You ain’t nothin’ but a . . .”
If there is any energy left in northern Connecticut after a performance of this show that would be amazing. Eight performers give 125% of themselves without pause for the length of this musical experience and at the end of it, after the bows and applause, they perform again for at least twenty more minutes at full level and even the audience is exhausted by the end of the show.
The characters on stage at the Sharon Playhouse are Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley, all of whom came together on one fateful night on December 4, 1956 at the Sun Records Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. A series of needed meetings with Sun’s owner and producer Sam Phillips turned into an impromptu jam session that made rock and roll history. Several of the participants had major decisions to make about their careers, including Phillips, and that is the story behind the drama here. The gathering was recorded and that made history as well. What tensions lay behind the meetings, and there were a few, provide the plot but what truly makes the show watchable are the performances of this dynamic and mostly accurate portraits of the men themselves.
There are about twenty-five memorable musical numbers in this show which even the most moderate fan of ’50s popular music would recognize. There is even a quick company costume change which dazzles us. This production is entirely first-rate which is something I am delighted to report. By the end of the performance I felt privileged to have been in Memphis in 1956 and to have witnessed this gathering. It was all that real.
Alessandro Gian Viviano was the best Elvis I have ever seen in this show. His singing was over-matched by his physical gyrations and hip swaggering; he was a remarkable copy of the original. As his “girl-friend” Dyanne, Lucy Rhoades gave a performance that triggered a romantic sense of music and morality like nothing I have ever seen before and she is quite a singer as well. Chance Michael Wall gave Carl Perkins a new sense of conscience and vindictiveness which honestly belong to his character and Matthew Schatz brought a perfect Johnny Cash into the room, singing and acting his way into our hearts with his sincerity and utter masculinity.
As usual in this show Jerry Lee Lewis, as played by Alex Burnette, is the most riveting character who irrepressible musicality truly exhausts the room (by which I mean the theater.) The actor must need physical therapy after each performance for his hands and wrists alone. Burnette is a spectacular show all by himself but is an integral part of this play.
However, as important and relevant as all these folks are, the true story of this show is the property of Sam Phillips, Sun’s founder and producer, played by Zach Cossman. It is his own story that matters most. We are fortunate to have Cossman in the role for he is a truly competent actor who makes the man both compassionate and needy and holds the storyline in his talented hands. Phillips created these men and Cossman understands and communicates that with honesty. If anyone makes us cry with understanding it is him in this role.
Director Greg Santos has done a beautiful job with this show. Using the aisles of the theater he brings us into the picture. His actors may interpret their characters with finesse, but it is clearly his work that makes them come across as the real thing, not mere imitation. Chance Wall’s additional work as Music Director has kept the songs as genuine as possible and Josh Karam on the bass and Alec Sisco on the drums add immeasurably to the musical delights of this production.
Christopher and Justin Swados have created a perfect replica of the Sun Records Studio and Kathleen DeAngelis has provided 1956 costumes that scream reality; bravo especially for Elvis’s loose but dynamic pants. The subtlety of Wheeler Moon’s lighting design keeps the show focused yet real.
This is a perfect show, but one which requires the audience to rest before it begins and long after it finally ends. One can only imagine how the participants of the actual event felt when their evening was finished. It had to be incredible!
Million Dollar Quartet continues at the Sharon Playhouse, 49 Amenia Road, Sharon, Connecticut through July 6. For information and tickets go to SharonPlayhouse.org or call 860-364-SHOW.
