Million Dollar Quartet: Four musical heavyweights agreed to impromptu jam

Million Dollar Quartet brings to life the epochal night when four musical heavyweights agreed to an impromptu jam

The 1950s were all about high-octane rock and roll. The decade altered the music landscape, gave birth to new stars and created notes to strum for eternity. Narrow down to December 4, 1956, and you come upon a night when four giants — Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins — turned up in Memphis’s tiny Sun Studios for an impromptu jam session, creating history.

Aptly called Million Dollar Quartet (first by a Memphis reporter), the Broadway and West End musical brings to life that momentous night. It oscillates between the frenzy of rock hits such as “Real Wild Child”, “Blue Suede Shoes”, “Who Do You Love?”, “Folsom Prison Blues”, “Hound Dog” and country songs like “Down by The Riverside”, stringing alongside a story through narrator Peter Duncan, who plays Sam Phillips.

Phillips, called the “father of rock and roll” by the four musicians, takes the viewer through their early lives, re-enacting his discovery of each, by stepping forward between the hits. “I wanted to make sure that the story and the relationships between the characters came across as much as the music,” says Ian Talbot, the director. “We moved scenes around so that it doesn’t come across as a concert but as a musical.” Accordingly, there are plenty of moments when the actors are seen interacting with each other, voicing their angst and concerns. 

Katie Ray as Dyanne

There’s Phillips, himself, ruefully telling the audience how he had to sell Presley’s contract to RCA to keep Sun Records alive. He, however, has a contract extension ready for Cash and has arranged the session for Perkins, who’s struggling to get a second hit after “Blue Suede Shoes”. Unknown to him, the session, to which he has added his latest discovery Lewis, comes at a time when Cash and Perkins are about to tell him of their move to Columbia Records. The latter is frustrated since everyone thinks Presley wrote “Blue Suede Shoes”. 

That ill-feeling and jealousy pours out when Presley walks into the session with his girlfriend. The stiffness and sly remarks are forgotten though when the four singers come together. In that instance, there’s room only for music. Even the wisecracks of the up-and-comer Lewis are forgiven, as he refuses to cow down to Perkins and others, going on with his “wild” style in both words and on the keyboard. Martin Kaye who plays Lewis, in fact, beats the hell out of the piano, using his hands, feet, elbows, exuding an energy that is at once reminiscent of Lewis.

There’s plenty to applaud in the performances of all actors, who manage to stick to the right mannerisms without crossing the line into mimicry. In Rhys Whitfield you see the restlessness of Presley, despite the difference in body structures. “Initially, it definitely was tough to get into the groove of Elvis’ style of performing. He has a very particular way of moving, especially in his earlier live performances around 1956,” says the actor. “It’s very high energy and never really stops. It can also be very unpredictable — sometimes he’s slow or completely still and tense, and sometimes he’s very loose and free — which is probably what makes it so entertaining!” Even Presley’s girlfriend, Dyanne, played by Jane Cadwell, works up a wonderful rendition of “Fever”. 

The four artists playing Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins

It helps that the actors are themselves fans of rock and roll and play various instruments in concerts, gigs and on albums outside of Million Dollar Quartet. Finding such musicians was a challenge, says Talbot, but there was a bigger (or lighter) predicament they faced during rehearsals. “Despite the fact that there are so many iconic rock and roll songs in the show, all performed live, the hardest and trickiest part of rehearsals was figuring out how to pass out a set of six glasses,” says Talbot.

This is during the contract scene when Phillips offers the papers to Cash, and brings out the glasses to celebrate, only to have the Columbia move spill over. A heavy moment, it spells out that singers with gold records also have their share of troubles. Even Presley, despite his fame, has had a disastrous stand in Las Vegas and is looking for guidance. “In the quartet, there is a very specific story in which Elvis plays a specific part at a specific time in his life. The challenge for me is balancing the two (his iconic status and vulnerability), and hopefully giving the audience a new insight into Elvis,” says Whitfield.

Sure, the events depicted here may have played out over months and not in a single day, but it’s the vitality of the music that stays with you. You wear out your hands clapping at the encore, and walk away with a bit of magic created that night, after a “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin On”.

Million Dollar Quartet is playing at the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre, NCPA, Mumbai till December 24, weekdays 7.30 pm; Saturday and Sunday 3.30 and 7.30 pm. Tickets on BookMyShow