I went to see Million Dollar Quartet last night. It’s taken me from last night til lunchtime today to know what I’d want to say. I had mixed feelings about the show even as I was watching it. I guess the best way to put it is that some of the performances were terrific, but the show as a whole was pretty weak sauce.
The show is described as “the new smash-hit musical inspired by the famed recording session that brought together rock ‘n’ roll icons Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins for the first and only time.” That doesn’t give the writers much of a plot to hang the script on, but perhaps they knew the music was what people would be going to see. So they contrived (and I use that word very much on purpose) a little set-up wherein the four musicians show up one by one to Sun Studios, at the behest of Sam Phillips, and each acts out a little flashback showing how he met Sam and started at Sun. Then they all perform together, mostly doing their hits, although in reality, they sang a lot of old gospel and old-time country music. Is that a nitpick? No, because frankly, most people wouldn’t sit through that show.
Here’s a nitpick, though: Jerry Lee Lewis was from Louisiana. Johnny Cash was from Arkansas. Elvis was born and raised in Mississippi and then Tennessee, and Carl Perkins apparently grew up in Tennessee. Sam Phillips grew up in Alabama. And they should have all had different Southern accents. Hey, I know this wasn’t Masterpiece Theatre, and I realize a lot of people don’t know this, but people from different regions of the South have different accents. And if you’re going to be an actor, you should know that and not fall back on an irritating, generic “Southern” accent. Especially when there are plenty of video and audio recordings of all 5 guys in existence. I will say that the performer who played Jerry Lee at least sounded different, although I can’t vouch for the verisimilitude of his accent.
On the plus side, they were all good performers. The actor who played Jerry Lee could really whale on that piano, boy. He was terrific. It must take a ton of practice to be able to emulate the real Lewis’s playing style, and he was up to the task. The actor who played Elvis looked pretty authentic from up in the loge, although he didn’t have even a fraction of the real Elvis’ charisma. I appreciated that he didn’t overplay the moment where he had to say “thank you very much.” 
There was a funny moment when the guy who played Johnny Cash (who didn’t really have the gravitas for the role and was maybe a little too purty) first stepped up to sing Walk The Line. He sounded surprisingly good, more like Johnny when he sang than when he talked, but you could sense a bit of tension as the audience waited to see if he could hit those low notes. He did it, and I swear you could feel a sense of relief, hear a slight sigh, and a smattering of applause.
I don’t want to be unfair to the actors who played Carl Perkins or Sam Phillips. I just don’t know enough about either of them to know whether the characterizations and the acting were good or not. Both parts seemed a little one-note. The Perkins actor played the guitar very well. And there was a female character whose sole purpose was pretty much to propel the skimpy kind-of-plot along. She was pretty and sang well, but her two numbers were kind of a drag, because we weren’t there to see Elvis’ girlfriend sing.
So, why were we there? I didn’t know what the show was going to entail. I was pretty disappointed in its structure. I started to think about how I could never understand why people pay good money to see tribute bands, like those guys who travel around pretending to be The Beatles, so they can imagine that they’re seeing the real Beatles onstage. It’s never going to be the real thing. And there I was, seeing this show that was basically an excuse for a bunch of guys to get up onstage and pretend to be Presley, Cash, Perkins and Lewis. I think that’s what bothered me the most: there wasn’t really a story.
I saw Jersey Boys last year and really enjoyed it, because I loved the music and because it told a story that I didn’t know, about the rise and fall of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. This event didn’t really lend itself to a story. In Jersey Boys, you saw Frankie Valli struggling with his daughter’s issues throughout the show, then his reaction to her death. In MDQ, Catalyst Girl cooed to Johnny Cash, “Say, John, do you have any other musicians in your family?” and then JC’s character had to clonk out the story about how his brother died when he was 14. So Elvis had to say, “Hey, don’t know if you know this, but I had a twin brother who died!” And then Jerry Lee had to pipe up about his brother who died. I kid you not. Awful, awful dialogue. They wrapped up that little vignette with the Carl Perkins character cracking a joke to his brother (who was onstage, along with a drummer) about how things didn’t look too good for him! I kid you not. Yeah, deaths in the family are always a hoot.
I think the most telling moment of the night came at the end, when Sam Phillips had the boys gather around the piano for a picture. As he put the camera up to his eye, the lights went out. There was the sound of the shutter clicking and a few flashes, then this picture appeared, suspended above the stage. The audience as a whole sort of sighed and said “Awww…” And I think it was that regret that brought us all to Shea’s. To know that these guys are all gone, and that they will never be replaced.
So, to summarize: great singers and musicians. Some great songs that are classics for a damn good reason. I learned a little bit about Carl Perkins. Lousy plot and crappy dialogue. A slight tang of cheesiness. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it.
Also, please note: you’re reading a review by someone who thinks Wicked was kind of stupid and annoying and boring and can’t be bothered to see Rent, yet those are shows that most people seem to love. But I was also pleasantly surprised and amused and entertained by the stage version of Hairspray and will admit to always having a blast when I see Mamma Mia, even though I know Broadway purists spit on it. So take my words with a grain of salt.
