Following a long and successful run in Chicago, “Million Dollar Quartet” is about to open at the Nederlander Theatre on Broadway and West 41st Street. Yours truly went along to attend a preview and like the rest of the packed house, I came out totally blown away. Before expanding on the detail, a little sketching-in of background might not go amiss. “MDQ” is a celebration of Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis, at a time when the four young trailblazers were bonding in the hallowed portals of the Sun Studio. The stage show has been adapted from the book by Floyd Mutrux and Colin Escott, whilst the musical arrangements and supervision are the work of Chuck Mead. Career-wise, Floyd Mutrux was the director of “American Hot Wax”, the classic rock n roll motion picture built around a week in the life of Alan Freed. Colin has written many a tome on the subject, in particular ‘Good Rockin’ Tonight: Sun Records and the Birth of Rock n Roll’. He’s also the owner of a Grammy, which was presented for his production and annotation of the Mercury Records’ 10-CD set, “The Complete Hank Williams”. Chuck Mead has picked-up a similar award, on no less than three occasions in fact, on behalf of BR5-49, the country rock band he still fronts when not overseeing “MDQ”.

Back in theatre-land, the show got underway with the audience being transported to the Carl Perkins session that was in progress at 706 Union Avenue on that momentous afternoon in December 1956. Carl (played by Robert Britton Lyons) warmed up the entire cast with a consummate exposition of ‘Blue Suede Shoes’, and from the get-go you couldn’t help noticing the wild-haired piano player who was augmenting the session on the left-hand side. Clad in a pair of home-made pants, a second-hand shirt and a borrowed tie, this was Levi Kreis in his show-stealing role as Jerry Lee Lewis. Stepping down from the control room, Sam Phillips (played convincingly by Hunter Foster) then walked centre-stage to undertake his secondary task as a story-telling emcee. The action duly shifted back to Carl who was still querying the credibility of his hired session hand. Seizing the moment, Jerry Lee set the record straight by declaring that “I’m the best mother-humpin’ piano-player you ever heard!” The message clearly got through, because he immediately flung himself into a rampant version of ‘Wild One’ leaving the audience in a state of total servitude. Just to show whose session it was, Carl countered with ‘Matchbox’ then threw in Bo Diddley’s ‘Who Do You Love’ for good measure.

The focus of attention then turned to Johnny Cash, who up until then had been anonymously strumming a Martin D-21. Blessed with a voice as deep as his character’s, Lance Guest stepped forward and gave out with an eminent ‘Folsom Prison Blues’, a well-received choice. At this point, Elvis (Eddie Clendening) strolled through the studio door accompanied by his girlfriend (Elizabeth Stanley). A round of hand-shaking and mumbled dialogue helped determine why he was in town. Rather than a showgirl from Las Vegas named Marilyn, ‘Dyanne’ was depicted as being an aspiring singer in search of a record deal. When she took her coat off to reveal a shapely figure, a bug-eyed Jerry Lee pronounced, “Jumpin’ Jehosaphat, I’m in love!” Before her bequiffed escort could commandeer the mic she proceeded to shimmy through a sensual version of ‘Fever’. This was a neat twist. So too was the fact that Elvis opened for business by sloping into ‘Memories Are Made of This’, a song that had no doubt had been included to ascertain his liking for Dean Martin. Not surprisingly, this was the toughest characterization within the show. Eddie sports a magnificent pompadour, and the J-200 Gibson he was toting certainly added to the mood. But the producers wisely stopped short of casting him as an Elvis impersonator, otherwise the period atmosphere would have suffered. A beefy take on ‘That’s All Right’ followed, and by now the audience was submerged in the vibe along with the cast.

Without wishing to give the entire game away, highlights from this point onwards included a homespun ‘Down By the Riverside’ and a reverential ‘Peace in the Valley’. Just as powerful was the religious rant that Jerry Lee spouted before launching into ‘Great Balls of Fire’. When a bottle of (q.v.) “Glen-Fye-Ditch” was introduced to help the party along, a beaming Sam Phillips raised his glass and exclaimed “Let’s have a hillbilly homecoming like this every year from now on!” Another neat yet probably unplanned touch, was the image projected by drummer Larry Lelli. Having figured out the bona fide Sun snare sound, he delivered a period-perfect backbeat in the company of bassist Corey Kaiser. The defining moment came when the four main actors gathered around the piano in the very positions that Elvis, Carl, Johnny and Jerry Lee had adopted in December 1956. The impact was made even more profound when a giant-sized replica of the original newspaper shot was lowered on a screen. The tableau came across as being the ‘rock’ equivalent to Joe Rosenthal’s iconic photo of U.S. Marines raising the Stars and Stripes on Mount Suribachi during the final months of World War 11. From there it was gangbusters all the way, through to a riotous finale that brought the entire cast together for a ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On’. With so many plusses to take into account, the “Million Dollar Quartet’s” potential pulling-power deserves to be seen as the harbinger of a recovering economy. May the “MDQ” run and run.