A supremely talented cast rescue this paint by numbers jukebox musical nostalgia fest
Seventy years ago on the 4th December 1956, four of the most popular musicians of their day stumbled quite accidentally into an impromptu jam session at Sun Records’ studio in Memphis, Tennessee. Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins hung out for one day only and it became known as the Million Dollar Quartet. Backed up by their inimitable producer Sam Philips, whose ear for rock n roll was clearly well tuned, here we find ourselves a concept for a jukebox musical.
The strongest elements lie in the musical numbers. With a combined back catalogue of an entire generation, there is so much to be enjoyed here. This show rides or dies with its casting, as the performers not only need to sing, dance and act like their respective counterparts, but they must be bona fide musicians capable of pulling the audience in to the sound of a sensational era in music history. Luckily, they achieve just that. From the fantastic guitar riffs and licks by Carl Perkins (played by Joey Bradick), calmer, brooding strums by Johnny Cash (played by Christopher Erasmus) to the manic piano maestro Jerry Lee Lewis (Played by Joe Bence) and swinging hips of Elvis Presley (Played by Connor Payne)
Alex Musgrave’s lush lighting gives a warm retro glow like it’s a TV show, enhancing the genuine Americana feel of the studio set. Libby Watson’s detailed, textured costumes provide a sense of realism to the characters in a space that is meant to show them offstage and casual. Great choreography and movement visually enhances the static set which otherwise remains the same, given it takes place over the course of a single afternoon.
However a very repetitive storyline pattern emerges: narration > scene > song. There is limited exposition into the wider lives of these famous faces. Plowing through four biographies was never on the agenda, but with very little plot, why should audiences care about this meeting? Aside from Presley and to an extent Cash, younger members of the audience would probably struggle to name a lot of the songs. We are told they are incredible people but learn nothing more about them other than some tidbits about religion and dead brothers and did you know Jerry Lee Lewis is from Ferriday, Louisiana? An assumption of knowledge is made and in squeezing two dozen songs into the show there is little time for anything else. Dyanne’s character (played enthusiastically by Jenay Naima) is superfluously lost in the mix as Presley’s girlfriend, as the token woman in the cast. Record producer Sam Phillips (played by Darren Day rather fantastically in his best Kenneth Copeland impression) is given more back-story and stage time than any of the actual quartet. His role as narrator shoehorned in between every song, trying gamely to add anachronistic melodrama into what was by all accounts a fairly relaxed day.
The success of the rousing triple song encore proved that audience energy and participation was there, but the preceding two hours failed to capitalise on it. Hits such as Cash’s I Walk the Line, Presely’s Hound Dog, Lewis’ Great Balls of Fire and Perkins’ Blue Suede Shoes are all crowd-pleasers worthy of a full concert experience. Given the indulgence into pure nostalgia, this show’s target audience appears to be your parents, grandparents and even great grandparents. Take them with you and you’ll show them a great time, but don’t expect to dig deeper than the recording booth.
Million Dollar Quartet runs at The Arts at Marble Arch until 6th December 2026