{"id":627872,"date":"2026-09-17T21:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T21:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/627872\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T21:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T21:24:10","slug":"million-dollar-quartet-review-jumping-jukebox-show-reignites-rocknroll-classics-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/627872\/","title":{"rendered":"Million Dollar Quartet review \u2013 jumping jukebox show reignites rock\u2019n\u2019roll classics | Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the Arts theatre currently closed for major works, it has established a larger base next to Marble Arch. This temporary new home is now given over to some golden oldies with a jukebox musical combining the stories of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis<\/a>. It is almost 70 years since they wound up together one December afternoon at Sam Phillips\u2019 Sun Studios in Memphis and recorded 40-odd songs. \u201cMillion dollar quartet\u201d ran the caption that accompanied their picture in the newspaper.<\/p>\n

Did this impromptu supergroup share vocals on Blue Suede Shoes and did Cash and Perkins mash up My Babe and Sixteen Tons as they do here? All the evidence suggests not. They chiefly laid down gospel and spiritual numbers amid some breezy chatter kept on the recordings. Two of those, Down By the Riverside and Peace in the Valley, are kept from the original session \u2013 along with Chuck Berry\u2019s Brown Eyed Handsome Man \u2013 in a show that uses the occasion to rotate instead through some of their greatest hits including Great Balls of Fire, which wouldn\u2019t be recorded at Sun for another year. Even Libby Watson\u2019s design, which turns the modest studios into a sort of checkerboard-floored rock\u2019n\u2019roll diner cum fairground, has a colourful arch resembling a retro jukebox.<\/p>\n

Owning the room \u2026 Jenay Naima as Dyanne in Million Dollar Quartet. Photograph: Alex Tabrizi<\/p>\n

The musical \u2013 first staged in 2006 and seen in the West End in 2011<\/a>, now newly transferred from Cirencester\u2019s Barn theatre<\/a> \u2013 is a curious mix of wildly fanciful and diligently factual. Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux\u2019s book has some laidback charm and humour but the characters often awkwardly trot out their own and each other\u2019s backstories. Phillips (Darren Day) hosts the evening, adding extra exposition. It can feel like a series of potted histories. Occasionally a song matches the men\u2019s conversation, as when their shared family bereavements inspire Peace in the Valley. Other songs may carry their own stories of danger and passion but the only drama bubbling in the script is Phillips\u2019 proteges being poached by bigger record labels and some rivalry between the foursome. It\u2019s not exactly Stereophonic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cockamamie \u2026 Joe Bence as Jerry Lee Lewis Photograph: Alex Tabrizi<\/p>\n

And yet \u2026 Jonathan O\u2019Boyle\u2019s production has four actor-musicians so charismatic and combative as these cocky young guns, each playing and singing with such vigour, that the well-worn tunes hit you afresh. Connor Payne\u2019s luxuriously quiffed Presley, Christopher Erasmus\u2019s brooding Cash, Joe Bence\u2019s cockamamie Lewis and Joey Bradick\u2019s driven Perkins are not imitations and instead retain an essence of each musician. Along with drummer Josh Haberfield and double bassist Geraint Downing, they rip through it with an assurance that is irresistible. And in this testosterone-filled studio, Presley\u2019s girlfriend \u2013 here called Dyanne \u2013 blows them all away with her rendition of Fever then does it again with I Hear You Knocking. Who cares if that really happened either, you may ask, when Jenay Naima owns the room this well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Arts theatre currently closed for major works, it has established a larger base next to Marble…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278],"class_list":["post-627872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}