‘Million Dollar Quartet’ Opens at PMT in West End (Thurs., 4/18/24)

MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET (jukebox musical) by Floyd Mutrux and Colin Escott. Pittsburgh Musical Theater. April 18 – May 12. 

PMT’s ‘Million Dollar Quartet features L-R: Collin Yates (Elvis Presley), Taylor Isaac Gray (Jerry Lee Lewis), Jon Rohlf (Carl Perkins), and Allen Law (Johnny Cash).

The musical Million Dollar Quartet is set in the 1950s, back when a million was an almost-mythical amount. So it’s fitting that the show dramatizes a day considered legendary in the annals of rock and country music. On December 4, 1956, four rather 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 (with book by Floyd Mutrux and Colin Escott) followed in 2006. Million Dollar Quartet fictionally re-creates the meeting and interaction of the four greats. It also fictionalizes much of the music they made together. Whereas the tapes caught them harmonizing mostly on country and gospel songs, the musical is heavy on jukebox hits of the period: “Hound Dog” by Presley, Perkins’ “Blue Suede Shoes,” Lewis’ “Great Balls of Fire,” etc. But hey, this isn’t history class; it’s show time. Pittsburgh Musical Theater stages Million Dollar Quartet in the company’s Gargaro Theater. 327 S. Main St., West End. (M.V.)

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