Million Dollar Quartet: ‘50s Rock ‘n’ Roll! Noël Coward Theatre, London ***** (Five Star Rating), By Fiona Lister

There’s a Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On in the West End right now. London’s Theatreland is ablaze with the sounds of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. Nothing beats ‘50’s rock ‘n’ roll played live as I found out last week at Delfont-Mackintosh’s Noël Coward Theatre. ‘Million Dollar Quartet’ is taking audiences by storm! There’s a party going on and Goodness Gracious, there’s Great Balls of Fire!

Million Dollar Quartet arrives at the Noël Coward Theatre after a highly successful run on Broadway. Directed by Eric Schaeffer and with musical arrangements by Chuck Mead, this historical moment is based on the book by Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux. The true story depicts the night of 4th December 1956 when four of the greatest icons of rock and roll - Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis were brought together for the first time by the founder of Sun Records, Sam Phillips, at Sun recording studio in Memphis. Carl Perkins was in the studio cutting tracks with Jerry Lee Lewis whilst Johnny Cash stood there watching the duo when Elvis Presley arrived with his girlfriend for a social visit to see Phillips. Elvis hears Jerry Lee Lewis playing and starts singing. Jerry Lee had never met Elvis before, but in a split second had struck up an incredible friendship with the King - a strong friendship that lasted a lifetime. The founding fathers of rock ‘n’ roll began jamming and Phillips let the tape run on, preserving a sensational moment in rock and roll's history. Many of these songs have been released on the CD Million Dollar Quartet.

The music is astoundingly brilliant to hear played live and the running time of the show is 2 hours long and you will be completely absorbed from the dynamic outset. It’s also a highly charged, energetic production. Million Dollar Quartet is essentially a jamming session on stage and the audience are flies on the wall. However, interwoven into the songs is a snapshot of the men’s search for fame and friendship, competing with rivalry and ambition. It’s a fascinating glimpse into how the four brilliant talents from very poor backgrounds changed musical history. From that moment on their careers took off at rapid speed and so did rock and roll.

In keeping with the spirit of the four icons, the music in this show is played live and the set is a studio where the jamming takes place. Sam Phillips, who is often cited as ‘the man who invented rock-‘n’roll’ is played by Bill Ward. Ward gives a passionate performance as the ambitious record producer intent on making history.

Phillips was a huge figure in the development of rock and roll and Elvis Presley was his greatest discovery. Although a dynamic man, Phillips was often struggling and selling contracts in his pursuit of finding new talent and staying afloat. However, he was fantastic at nurturing the strengths of his charges and was in the record business for the love of creating new sounds, which he has done. He was a pioneer in the development of rock ‘n’ roll and it’s no wonder that his name appears in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Rockabilly Hall of Fame, the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, the Blues Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 1991 he received a Grammy Trustees Award.

The star of this production is Jerry Lee Lewis (Ben Goddard) who is sensational as the curly-haired, wild piano player. He leaps onto the piano chair and hits the notes like a speed demon, at one time bending back to a completely horizontal angle in his chair and still managing to play the piano at high speed, thrashing out the song. Goddard’s likeness to Jerry Lee Lewis is uncanny and “Great Balls of Fire!” was utterly astounding. Similarly, he throws himself into “Real Wild Child” and “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On”. Goddard’s act is unforgettable and was definitely the talk of the night in Brown’s bar next door. Members of the audience were dancing in the aisles.

What this show demonstrates is that with all the uncertainty and hardship these men have faced to achieve any kind of success, their talent has carried them through life. All of them and their families suffered financial uncertainty during the 1930s Great Depression – they were born at a particularly difficult time, but these giants of rock and roll were driven by their musical genius and it’s that talent that spurred them on. Yes, it’s exciting, but there’s also the fact that they’ve worked like devils to attain that level of success and their musical influences aren’t so different. The show explores the chemistry between these men. It’s raw – they just plug in and play.

Jerry Lee Lewis
Lewis was born on 29th September 1935. He came from a poor family in Ferriday in Concordia Parish in eastern Louisiana and showed real ability to play the piano from an early age. Lewis began playing the piano with his cousins and was influenced most by his eldest cousin, Carl McVoy. McVoy, who had stayed with his minister father in New York, became hooked on boogie-woogie during his time there and when he returned to Arkansas, would collaborate on sounds with the young, eager Jerry Lee. McVoy later went on to record the famous ‘You Are My Sunshine’ with Sun Records.

Jerry’s parents, Elmo and Mamie Lewis, mortgaged their home to buy their son a piano. Lewis played in the local church and his tastes were shaped by rhythm and blues, boogie-woogie, gospel, and country music. He began to get the reputation as being a 'wild child' and these ‘wild’ tastes got him suspended from Southwest Bible Institute in Waxahachie, Texas when instead of playing traditional church songs to the Lord, Lewis decided on his own boogie-woogie interpretation of “My God Is Real” and was promptly expelled.

Lewis followed his dreams and played the clubs in Mississippi and Nashville. Despite an unsuccessful audition for the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and a brief television appearance, maverick Lewis persevered to become one of the earliest pioneers of rock and roll music and one of the most rebellious. Lewis had a fiery temperament which saw him setting light to a piano on stage and the wild child even married his cousin, which caused huge controversy, particularly in the United States who blacklisted him due to speculation about her being just thirteen years old! In fact, Lewis has been married six times.

In 1963 his Sun Recording contract came to an end and he joined Smash Records. He had been one of Sun’s biggest sellers (Johnny Cash was its biggest selling artist) and good old Jerry still continues to play live today at the age of seventy-five! In 1989 a film on his life “Great Balls of Fire!” starring Dennis Quaid brought Jerry Lee back into the limelight. Quaid gives a startling performance as the wild artist and there’s the grand scene when he sets light to the piano on stage and carries on playing it like a madman! Well worth watching!

The fiery rocker shows no sign of retiring and on October 29, 2009, Lewis opened the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 25th Anniversary concert in New York’s Madison Square Garden. In 2010 Jerry Lee joined the cast of Millionaire Dollar Quartet for a one off jamming session. Anyone interested in his music should buy ‘Last Man Standing’.

Elvis Presley
Michael Malarkey makes a very fitting young Elvis who belts out Hound Dog and Fever. There’s a great moment in the show where Sam Phillips turns to Elvis and says: “I wanna hear your soul boy!” Thus follows tremendously powerful guitar playing. Marlarkey’s voice is incredibly similar to Elvis and his smoother image plays well against the more rugged Lewis. Just like Lewis, Elvis was born in 1935 and grew up being influenced by country, gospel, black R&B and blues. It’s not hard to see how two dynamic men with similar talents would spark off each other in a recording studio. In some ways they mirrored each other.

Malarkey trained at LAMDA and made his stage debut in Laurie Sansom’s productions of Eugene O’Neill’s Beyond The Horizon and Tennessee Williams’s Spring Storm (Northampton Royal and Derngate and NT).

Dyanne
Francesca Jackson plays Dyanne, Elvis’s fictitious girlfriend. This role is said to be based on one of his short-term girlfriends, 19 year-old Marilyn Evans, who worked as a showgirl at the New Frontier Casino in Las Vegas, and dated Elvis only for a few weeks. Until recently, no one knew for sure whether she was indeed the mystery girlfriend featured in a photograph with the four men at Sun studios or whether that was her name, but Marilyn (now Knowles-Riehl) recently came out of the shadows and gave her story to the Chicago Herald Tribune. Although Marilyn never sang with the icons, she did request them to sing End of the Road on the original recording. Marilyn’s obscurity has now fuelled the interest of audiences and critics eager to hear more about that famous day at Sun Records. CLICK HERE to read her story.

Jackson depicts Dyanne (or Marilyn) as a cool sophisticated brunette, glamorous, self-assured and confident. Whether she’s lounging about with a drink in her hand or lying on the piano as Jerry plays wildly, Jackson smolders, particularly with her rendition of Fever. Ms Jackson recently appeared in another smash hit ‘50s musical, Dreamboats & Petticoats (currently showing at the Playhouse Theatre, London).

Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash is played by Derek Hagen whose theatre credits include appearing in Enron (Noël Coward Theatre), Carousel (Savoy Theatre) and Gone With The Wind (New London Theatre).

Cash was known as ‘The Man In Black’ due to his dark clothing and rendition of songs like Folsom Prison Blues which he would sing at free concerts for prisoners. What Hagen has managed to conquer is Cash’s deep bass-baritone voice and brooding attitude.

Although best remembered as a country music artist, during his early years, Cash was influenced by rockabilly and early rock and roll. Born in 1932 in Kingsland, Arkansas, he was the fourth of seven children – his younger brother Tommy Cash also became a successful recording artist. However, his young life was shrouded in turmoil when his older brother Jack, had a terrible accident at the mill where he worked. Poor Jack was pulled into a head saw machine and nearly sawn in two. He survived for one week after the accident, dying at the age of 15. Jack’s accident had a profound influence on Cash who felt a sense of guilt. Jack had been working at the mill to bring home money to keep the family going. The 1930s Great Depression had forced many Americans into industrial factories, often working in harsh, intolerable conditions to keep a roof over their heads.

Cash went on to have a chequered career, including spending several years in the United States Air Force. He started his first band The Landsberg Barbarians while he was working as an intercept operator at Landsberg, Germany.

Despite personal problems with his marriage and drugs, Cash’s career flourished. However, it wasn’t until the 1960s when remarried to June Carter with whom he co-wrote Ring of Fire that he recorded albums in Fulsom Prison (1968) and San Quentin (1969). One of the most famous songs at this time was A Boy Named Sue (at that time he was signed with Columbia Records, as from 1958).

Carl Perkins
Carl Perkins, played by Robert Britton Lyons, was born in Tiptonville, Tennessee on 9th April 1932. Just like Lewis and Cash, Perkins was born into a poor family. He worked in the cotton fields after school and was influenced by the gospel and blues sung by the field workers. Perkins began playing at the age of seven, and being so poor, his father fashioned a guitar from a cigar box and a broomstick. Nothing could stop Perkins from learning how to play and by his early teens, he was absorbed in the sounds of country, gospel and blues. During the late 1940s he had formed a group with his brothers ‘The Perkins Brothers’. He wrote his first single Movie Magg when he was thirteen years old, which was recorded in 1954, and released a year later when he toured with Elvis Presley. This spurred him on to write Blue Suede Shoes, which Elvis sung and the song launched Perkins into the heady heights of fame. However, although his early life was less flamboyant than Jerry Lee, Elvis and Cash, he did suffer setbacks; in 1956 while The Perkins Brothers were travelling to New York, on their way to make a television appearance, their vehicle hit a pickup truck and Carl was hospitalised. Thankfully, he fought back and just a few months later made an appearance on the Top Stars of 56 tour together with Chuck Berry.

Perkins wrote songs that were recorded by other artists such as Patsy Cline, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Stray Cats, Rosanne Cash, Eric Clapton and George Harrison, to name a few! In his later years he recorded and performed with Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Joan Jett, Tom Petty and Bono. Go Cat Go! is his last sensational album and well worth listening to. Perkins passed away in 1997 after battling with illness. He was still performing just a few months before he died.

Robert Britton Lyons(Carl Perkins) is a singer-songwriter from Seattle. Britton Lyons has worked with musicians including: Pearl Jam and Harvey Danger. Just like the character he plays, Britton Lyons has worked as an instrumentalist and as a singer with the finest blues artists of his generation.


Million Dollar Quartet is a must for a truly incredible night out. Although this show lasts 1hr & 40 minutes without an interval, don’t let that put you off. You can take your drink into the auditorium and Brown’s restaurant and bar is just next door to the theatre, so you will have plenty of time for meeting up with friends before or after the show, and will make it back to the station in time to catch your train home - no having to rush for a tube, bus or taxi after a late finishing performance. I’ve also heard that the cast have jammed on the piano in Browns, but that might be a rumour. I have yet to find out for sure!

Pull on your Blue Suede Shoes and get yourselves over to The Noël Coward Theatre, St. Martin’s Lane. See you later Alligator!

MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET features over 20 classic hits including:
Blue Suede Shoes, Real Wild Child, Matchbox, Who Do You Love?, Folsom Prison Blues, Fever, Memories Are Made Of This, That’s All Right, Brown Eyed Handsome Man, Down By The Riverside, Sixteen Tons, My Babe, Long Tall Sally, Peace in The Valley, I Walk The Line, I Hear You Knocking, Party, Great Balls Of Fire, Down By The Riverside, Hound Dog, Riders In The Sky, See You Later Alligator, Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.

I have just taken my friends to this show over Christmas. The entire audience stood up to dance at the end. I've encouraged everyone I know to get over to the Noël Coward Theatre to see these incredible musicians play live on stage. If you want to see this show, you must hurry. Million Dollar Quartet closes on 14th January 2012 after a long, highly successful West End run.

TICKETS
Tickets can be purchased directly from Delfont Mackintosh:
CLICK HERE for ticket details and prices.