Last Day for ‘Million Dollar Quartet’ at Mtn. Playhouse; 12 Peers Latest ‘Mythburgh’ at brillobox (Sun., 10/13/19)

Elvis back when: looking like a million. (photo: Sun Records, 1954)

1) The musical Million Dollar Quartet is set in the 1950s, when a million dollars was a lot, so ignore the fact that today it won’t buy a decent backup quarterback. The show dramatizes a legendary event in rock and country music. On December 4, 1956, four notable persons happened to show up at Sun Record Studios in Memphis: Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins. They met; they jammed. Tapes of the impromptu session, lost for years, were eventually found and formed a series of albums. The stage musical followed in 2006. Million Dollar Quartet fictionally re-creates the meeting and music-making of the four greats. But whereas the tapes caught them harmonizing mostly on country and gospel songs, the musical is heavy on their jukebox hits of the period: “Hound Dog” by Presley, Perkins’ “Blue Suede Shoes,” Lewis’ “Great Balls of Fire,” etc. Mountain Playhouse, which scored with the show last year, once again presents Million Dollar Quartet at 7690 Somerset Pike, Jennerstown. 3 p.m. Ends today. (MV)

2) The Mythburgh series is a periodic getting-together of local theater artists who turn strange Pittsburgh stories into short performance pieces. The stories can be serious, illogical, true, or apocryphal; the unifying theme is that they have a mythical, urban-legend quality. Presented by 12 Peers Theater, these events occur several times per year and it’s time for another Mythburgh. 8 p.m. Tonight only. Brillobox, 4104 Penn Ave., Bloomfield. (MV)

Sunday, October 13

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