On December 4, 1956, Sun Records founder Sam Phillips wished to file some new tracks with Carl Perkins, whose “Blue Suede Shoes” had been successful for Perkins and Sun famous person Elvis Presley.
Phillips introduced within the younger Jerry Lee Lewis to play piano within the session. And then two different Phillips stars — Presley, whose contract had been bought to RCA to maintain Sun Records afloat, and Johnny Cash, who was about to leap ship to Columbia Records — got here by the Memphis studio.
When the 4 began jamming, the Sun engineer pressed “file,” and a one-time-only group, dubbed the Million Dollar Quartet, made a chunk of music historical past.
In 2006 on the Seaside Music Theatre in Daytona Beach, that night time and people stars spawned Million Dollar Quartet, a chunk of musical theater jam-packed with hits. The present would go on to a serious manufacturing at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre in 2008, to Broadway in 2010, off-Broadway, London, a tour, and productions at theaters everywhere in the United States — together with two by Actors’ Playhouse in Coral Gables.
With the smash success of these 2016 and 2018 productions on the Miracle Theatre, it is no shock that Actors’ Playhouse and creative director David Arisco would return to the Million Dollar effectively to kick off the corporate’s thirty fifth anniversary season.
While the brand new present, Million Dollar Quartet Christmas, is not exactly a sequel — it takes place on the identical night time as the unique, as a result of Elvis, Johnny, Carl, and Jerry Lee received collectively simply the one time — it serves up a recent assortment of songs linked by a distinct story.
The music, as anybody within the delighted Actors’ viewers would let you know, is sung and performed to a fare-thee-well by proficient actor-musicians who’ve been a part of one or each of the corporate’s Million Dollar Quartet productions.
Colin Escott’s new e book, nevertheless, pales compared to his Tony Award-nominated authentic (he co-wrote the primary one with Floyd Mutrux). All of the actually great things about these stars, Sam Phillips, Sun, jealousies, betrayals, gossip — that was all utilized in Million Dollar Quartet. Escott has struggled to assemble a narrative that is not half as compelling, and no quantity of finesse on the a part of the performers and Arisco can disguise that.
Fortunately, no less than with this specific present, theatergoers aren’t targeted on listening to the characters discuss to one another. They need to hear the music, the hits, Elvis singing “Blue Christmas,” thanks very a lot. And they do.
Led by Arisco and musical director Dominique Scott, who’s reprising his Carbonell Award-winning function as Jerry Lee Lewis, the actors ship the vocal and instrumental items.
Eddie Clendening, who performed Elvis on Broadway and within the first Actors’ manufacturing, is again because the King, once more with a sultry singer named Dyanne in tow (Lindsey Corey, right here a redhead in a fits-like-a-glove pink velvet gown). Sky Seals is again as Cash, Jeremy Sevelovitz as Perkins, with David Sonneborn on drums and Jonny Bowler on bass. Gregg Weiner has returned as Phillips, whom he first performed at Actors’ in 2018.
Solos, duets, and songs by the solid as an entire circulation like spiked eggnog at an organization Christmas celebration.
Clendening’s Elvis croons “Don’t Be Cruel,” “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” and a beautiful duet with Seals’ Cash on “Silent Night.” Seals sends a contented jolt by means of the viewers with “Ring of Fire,” and Sevelovitz’s Perkins blazes on guitar as he sings “Cotton Top.”
Scott, taking part in the controversial rock ‘n’ roll legend who handed away simply final month, is a wild man as Lewis, singing “Chantilly Lace,” “Boogie Woogie Santa Claus,” “Bad Kid,” then simply topping himself greater than as soon as in the course of the concert-style finale.
Corey provides vocal spice with a sultry “Santa Baby” and different tunes, however her mission seems to be slinking across the studio and draping her arm over this musician or that one. Her proficient, charismatic Dyanne deserves extra. Weiner performs Phillips in a pleasing, low-key method slightly than as a music pioneer going through the lack of stars he helped create.
The design crew — set designer Gene Seyffer, lighting designer Eric Nelson, sound designer Eric Bonilla, costume designer Ellis Tillman and set dresser/properties designer Jodi Dellaventura — successfully re-creates the Million Dollar Sun studio, the interval look of the actors, the shifting moods of various songs.
In going again to the artistic effectively, Million Dollar Quartet Christmas does not ship as reliably as its predecessor. But it’s a rollicking, holiday-mood-enhancing expertise for music lovers searching for a distinct strategy to get into the spirit of the season.
– Christine Dolen, ArtburstMiami.com
Million Dollar Quartet Christmas. 8 p.m. Wednesday by means of Saturday and three p.m. Sunday by means of January 1, at Actors Playhouse, 280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables; 305-444-9293; actorsplayhouse.org. Tickets price $40 to $125.