About Million Dollar Quartet
The Broadway smash-hit Million Dollar Quartet is the rocking musical that brings you inside the recording studio on the legendary night Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, and Jerry Lee Lewis got together for a historical recording session that is the first and only time these rock and roll icons performed together. Million Dollar Quartet brings that legendary December night to life with an irresistible tale of broken promises, secrets, betrayal and celebrations that is both poignant and funny.
Around Christmas time in 1956, Carl Perkins was in a post-“Blue Suede Shoes” funk. He booked a recording session on Dec. 4th with Sun Records owner and producer Sam Phillips. Wanting to fatten Carl’s rockabilly sound, Phillips had hired a relatively unknown Memphis musician named Jerry Lee Lewis to play piano on the session. Along with Lewis, Perkins and his band recorded a number of songs including one of Perkins’ best-known records, “Matchbox.”. (The single was only a minor hit when Perkins recorded it, but later on when released by The Beatles in 1964, it reached the top 20 of the Billboard charts.)
Details from the rest of that day are still questioned, but this is what is known: Perkins and Lewis were later joined by Elvis Presley and fellow Sun Records artist, Johnny Cash. The foursome held an impromptu jam session, playing various songs, and a recording engineer had the foresight to record the whole thing. A newspaper wrote, “This quartet could sell a million.” Rock and roll music was changed forever and The Million Dollar Quartet was born.
The recording session retains its historical significance as a landmark event in the age of Rock n’ Roll, and a milestone for the genre in the ever-changing world of the 20th century popular culture and mass media. In the decades that ensued, The Million Dollar Quartet in 1956 has often been referred to as the “Mount Rushmore of Rock n’ Roll.”
Receiving three Tony nominations, including Best Book and Best Musical, the score of era-defining hits include BLUE SUEDE SHOES, THAT’S ALL RIGHT, GREAT BALLS OF FIRE, WALK THE LINE, WHOLE LOTTA SHAKING GOING ON, FOLSOM PRISON BLUES, HOUND DOG and many, many more. Broadway’s Million Dollar Quartet is the new hit musical inspired by this famed jam session and is an unforgettable night of rock ‘n’ roll.
Relive the era with the smash-hit sensation featuring an incredible score of rock ‘n’ roll, gospel, R&B and country hits, performed live onstage by world-class actors and musicians. Million Dollar Quartet captures the contagious spirit, freewheeling excitement, and thrilling sounds of the once-in-a-life-time event where four of music’s best talents came together.