It’s the most wonderful time of the year! To ring in the joyous season, Terry and I met up with Dad, Janice, Chris, Roy, Jax, Elijah, Josh and Jill in Franklin to catch the holiday production of the “Million Dollar Quartet Christmas”. Unfortunately, poor Levi was sick and couldn’t make it. I know he would have absolutely loved it because he has become quite the audiophile.
We all met at the Turner Theater inside the entertainment/retail destination of The Factory with great anticipation. There were celebrations all over town which made traveling to and fro achingly slow and parking virtually impossible but we all managed to make it on time. Here’s a quick synopsis of the show:
“Million Dollar Quartet Christmas” is a vibrant jukebox musical that brings to life a legendary moment in rock ‘n’ roll history. The audience is swept into a jam session from December 4, 1956, at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee, where four icons of music, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins, gather under the guidance of Sun Records founder Sam Phillips. Though short-lived, this impromptu session was a pivotal event in music history.
The musical recreates the magic of 1950s rock, country, and rockabilly and seamlessly weaves in traditional yet jazzed-up Christmas tunes such as “Home for the Holidays,” “Don’t Be Cruel,” “Blue Christmas,” “Chantilly Lace,” “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town”, and “Ring of Fire.”
“Million Dollar Quartet Christmas” is a thoughtful and thrilling homage to a pivotal moment in music history, celebrating the talent and charisma of four legends who defined an era. – BroadwayWorld.com
Making our way downtown to meet everyone for the show and then hanging out in front of the theater waiting for everyone to arrive.
The show was AMAZING!!! The talent and musicianship was out of this world and we were all dancing in our seats and singing along being filled with nostalgia and Christmas cheer. The staging, production, choreography, storyline and all the performers were fantastic but the actor portraying Jerry Lee Lewis definitely stole the show. With a deep rooted southern drawl, deadpan one-liners, and a wild, single-minded fiery attack of the piano, he captured Lewis’ self-confident swagger that made him a force of nature and a rockabilly legend.
After a standing ovation with lots of hoops and hollers we were all hopped up on holiday glee.
In case you were wondering about the impetus of the show, here’s a little historical background and the photo that was the inspiration behind the musical.
The “Million Dollar Quartet” is the name given to recordings made on Tuesday December 4, 1956 in the Sun Record Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. The recordings were of an impromptu jam session between Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash. The jam session seems to have happened by pure chance. Perkins, who by this time had already met success with “Blue Suede Shoes,” had come into the studios that day, accompanied by his brothers Clayton and Jay and by drummer W.S. Holland, their aim being to cut some new material, including a revamped version of an old blues song, “Matchbox.”
Sam Phillips, the owner of Sun Records, who wished to try to fatten this sparse rockabilly instrumentation, had brought in his latest acquisition, singer and piano man extraordinaire, Jerry Lee Lewis, still unknown outside Memphis, to play the piano on the Perkins session.
Sometime in the early afternoon, Elvis Presley, a former Sun artist himself, but now at RCA, dropped in to pay a casual visit accompanied by a girlfriend, Marilyn Evans. He was, at the time, the biggest name in show business, having hit the top of the singles charts five times, and topping the album charts twice in the preceding 12 month period. Less than four months earlier, he had appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, pulling an unheard-of 83% of the television audience, which was estimated at 55 million, the largest in history, up to that time. After chatting with Philips in the control room, Presley listened to the playback of the Perkins’ session, which he pronounced to be good. Then he went into the studio and some time later the jam session began. Phillips left the tapes running in order to “capture the moment” as a souvenir and for posterity. At some point during the session, Sun artist Johnny Cash, who had also enjoyed a few hits on the country charts, popped in (Cash noted in his autobiography Cash that it was he who was the first to arrive at Sun Studio that day). As Jerry Lee pounded away on the piano, Elvis and his girlfriend at some point slipped out. Cash claims in Cash that “no one wanted to follow Jerry Lee, not even Elvis”.The following day, an article, written by Memphis newspaperman Bob Johnson about the session, was published in the Memphis Press-Scimitar under the title, “Million Dollar Quartet.” The article contained the now well known photograph of Elvis Presley seated at the piano surrounded by Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. – SunRecords.com
After the show, we came back to the house to hang out, reminisce about the production, and have a hearty meal. A crockpot roast with potatoes and carrots awaited our arrival and as I popped Grandmother Ginny’s Poppyseed Chicken casserole and Sister Schubert’s rolls into the oven, and heated up the LeSeur peas, the boys caught up with the Army/Navy game while the kiddos played Connect Four and Uno on the kitchen table.
With Christmas music playing in the background, we lingered in the dining room after dinner over slices of a towering yellow cake with chocolate cake frosting and a coconut cake served with rich, hot, cups of coffee and sips of creamy, dreamy Promised Land Egg Nog.
What an absolutely perfect day surrounded by family and the sights and sounds of the season. We sure did miss Josh and Jill who weren’t able to join us as they had to get back to Levi to give him some much needed attention to ensure that he is in healthy spirits for Christmas day.
