Bicknell Center hosts Million Dollar Quartet

  Thursday, January 28, 2016 2:00 AM
  News

Pittsburg, KS

The Tony Award winning Broadway musical “Million Dollar Quartet” comes to the Bicknell Family Center for the Arts for two performances on Saturday, Feb. 6.

The show is inspired by the true story of the legendary recording session on December 4, 1956, where Sam Phillips, the “Father of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” brought together icons Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins for one unforgettable night at the Sun Record studios in Memphis, Tenn.

That chance meeting of four American music icons quickly evolved into a jam session, which today is considered a seminal moment in rock and roll history. An article about the session was published in the Memphis Press-Scimitar under the title "Million Dollar Quartet."

The recording of the session was first released in Europe in 1981 as “The Million Dollar Quartet” with 17 tracks. A few years later, more tracks were discovered and released as “The Complete Million Dollar Session.” In 1990, the recordings were released in the United States as “Elvis Presley - The Million Dollar Quartet.”

The musical, “The Million Dollar Quartet,” written by Floyd Mutrux and Colin Escott, opened on Broadway in 2010, where it played 489 performances. The musical was nominated for three 2010 Tony Awards: Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical and Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical for Levi Kreis, who won the award for Best Featured Actor for his portrayal of Jerry Lee Lewis.

The production features a score of rock hits including "Blue Suede Shoes," "Fever," "That's All Right," "Sixteen Tons," "Great Balls of Fire," "Walk the Line," "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On," "Who Do You Love?," "Matchbox," "Folsom Prison Blues," "Hound Dog" and more.

In Pittsburg, “The Million Dollar Quartet” will run for two shows on Saturday, Feb. 6: a matinee at 2 p.m. and an evening performance at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available at the PSU Ticket Office, 1701 S. Homer, 620-235-4796, or purchase online at www.pittstate.edu/tickets.